CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


1.0 


I.I 


■-IIIIIM  IIM 

§  IM    Hill  2.2 


1^  '""^ 

2.0 


1.8 


1.25      1.4 

1.6 

■^ 

6"     — 

» 

\ 


Photographic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notas/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  ise  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


0 


D 
D 


D 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couleur 


I     I   Covers  damaged/ 


Couverture  endommagAe 

Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaur^  et/ou  pelliculAe 

Cover  title  missing/ 

Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps/ 

Cartes  gAographiques  en  couleur 

Coloured  inic  (i.e.  other  then  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 
Planches  et/ou  illustrstions  en  couleur 


D 


Bound  with  other  material/ 
ReilA  avec  d'autres  documents 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  reliure  serrie  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  IntArieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appeer  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  aJoutAes 
lors  d'une  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  Atait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  At*  filmAes. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  supplAmentaires: 


L'Institut  a  microfilm*  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  *t*  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  ditaiis 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sent  peut-Atre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique.  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  mAthode  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiquAs  ci-dessous. 


7 

ti 


1 

P 
c 


I     I   Coloured  pages/ 


n 


Pages  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommagAes 

Pages  restored  and/oi 

Pages  restaurAes  et/ou  pelliculAes 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxei 
Pages  dicoiorAes,  tachetAes  ou  piquAes 

Pages  detached/ 
Pages  dAtachAes 

Showthrough> 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

Qualit6  inAgale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  materii 
Comprend  du  materiel  supplAmentaire 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Edition  disponible 


I     I  Pages  damaged/ 

I     I  Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 

I     I  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 

I     I  Pages  detached/ 

I      I  Showthrough/ 

|~n  Quality  of  print  varies/ 

I     I  Includes  supplementary  material/ 

I — I  Only  edition  available/ 


T 

si 
T 

VI 

d 

ei 
b 
ri 
ri 
nr 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totelement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  M  filmAes  A  nouveau  de  fapon  A 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  film*  au  taux  de  reduction  indiquA  ci-dessous. 


10X 


14X 


18X 


22X 


26X 


30X 


n 

32X 


y 


12X 


16X 


aox 


24X 


28X 


Th«  copy  filmad  her*  hat  bean  raproducad  thicnks 
to  tha  ganarosity  of: 

Library  Division 

Provincial  Archives  of  British  Columbia 

Tha  imagaa  appaarSng  hara  ara  tha  batt  quality 
postibia  conaidaring  tha  condition  and  iagibility 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  icaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  tpacifications. 


Original  copias  in  printad  papar  covars  ara  fiimad 
baginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  last  paga  with  a  printad  or  iilustratad  impras- 
aion.  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriata.  Ail 
othar  original  copias  ara  fiimad  baginning  on  tha 
first  paga  with  a  printad  or  iilustratad  impras- 
sion,  and  anding  on  tha  last  page  with  a  printad 
or  iilustratad  imprassion. 


Tha  last  racordad  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  tha  symbol  —^-  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 

Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


L'exemplaira  film*  fut  raproduit  grAca  A  la 
g*n4roait4  da: 

Library  Division 

Provincial  Archives  of  British  Columbia 

Lea  images  suivantas  ont  At*  raproduitas  avac  la 
plus  grand  soin.  compta  tenu  de  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattet*  da  I'axamplaire  film*,  et  en 
conformitA  avsc  las  conditions  du  contrat  da 
filmaga. 

Lm  exemplairas  originauu  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  imprimAe  sont  filmAs  en  commen^ant 
par  la  premier  plat  at  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
darnlAre  paga  qui  comporta  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration.  soit  par  la  second 
plat,  salon  la  cas.  Tous  las  autras  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  filmAs  an  commandant  par  la 
premiAre  paga  qui  comporta  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  at  en  terminant  par 
la  darniAre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaftra  sur  la 
derniAro  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbole  — »•  signifie  "A  SUIVRE  ",  le 
symbole  V  signifie  "FIN". 

Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc..  peuvent  Atre 
filmAs  A  des  taux  de  rAduction  diffArents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  Atre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clichA.  il  est  filmA  A  partir 
de  I'angle  supArieur  gauche,  de  gauche  A  droite. 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  nAcessaire.  Las  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrant  la  mAthode. 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

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VIA  ThEr 

Oreoom  Railroad 

£>'  NAVIGATION  Co 


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<2ytazl/uoest 
CoUectLOiv 


^ 


THE  NEW 
BONANZALAND 


' 


WITH  A  BRIEF  DISSERTATION 
ON  BOOMS. 


BY 

P.  DONAN. 


Issued  by  the  Passenger  Department 

of  the 

Oregon  Railroad  and  Navigation  Company, 

Portland,  Oregon, 

1897 


/  .      I 


F.  W.   BALTES  AND  COMPANY. 

PRINTERS, 

PORTLAND,  OREGON. 


( 


:•  {■ 


I 


< 


THE  NEW  BONANZALAND. 


L 


EXISTING  IGNORANCE  OF  THE  WEST. 


A  Great  New  York  Magazine  Manifests  a  High  Quality  of  It  in 
an  Elaborate  Article  on  Booms. 


\17HAT  the  average  American  oriental  does  not  know 
VV  about  his  own  country  and  its  infinite  capabilities, 
would  fill  a  good  many  ponderous  volumes.  What  even  the 
wisest  of  Gotham  and  Cape  Cod  pundits  and  sages  have  failed 
to  learn,  or  to  appreciate,  in  regard  to  the  majestic  continent 
they  have  honored  by  permitting  it  to  become  their  native 
land,  would  furnish  a  pretty  fair  foundation  for  omniscience, 
and  leave  several  items  of  valuable  information  over  for 
inferior  intelligences.  What  the  typical  easterner  never  read, 
or  heard,  or  imagined,  of  that  vast  and  varied  empire,  vaguely 
characterized  as  The  West,  includes  about  all  there  is  to  be 
told  or  written  of  it.  To  a  New  Yorker,  America  is  bounded 
on  the  north  by  the  Spitting  Devil  and  the  Harlem  quag- 
mires and  goat-pastures,  on  the  south  by  Greenwood  Ceme- 
tery and  Coney  Island  wooden  elephants,  on  the  east  by 
Hell-Gate,  and  on  the  west  by  Hoboken  and  Jersey  lightning. 
To  a  Bostonian,  the  sun  rises  over  Fort  Warren,  strikes  high 
noon  above  Bunker  Hill  monument,  and  sets  just  behind 
Back  Bay.  Half  the  world— a  mighty  hemisphere,  incompar- 
able in  grandeur,  incomputable  in  riches,  and  illimitable  in 
possibilities— lies  west  of  all  their  geographies.  Their  maps 
are  all  too  narrow,  their  ideas  all  too  small.    "Having  eyes. 


10S638 


they  see  not,  and  having  ears,  they  hear  not;  neither  do 
they  understand,"  that  all  the  boundless  productive  powers 
and  possibilities  of  the  new-world  republic  lie  in  the  match- 
less region,  which  they,  in  their  arrogant  ignorance,  stigma- 
tize as  "the  wild  and  woolly  west."  The  fields  of  grain  and 
grass  and  cotton;  the  orchards  and  vineyards  and  gardens; 
the  horizon-fenced  prairie  pastures,  with  their  countless 
flocks  and  herds;  the  forests  of  timber  and  quarries  of  stone; 
and  the  mines  of  gold  and  silver,  copper,  iron,  lead  and  coal, 
— on  which  they,  as  mere  brokers  and  handlers,  hucksters  and 
peddlers, — depend  for  food,  clothing,  shelter  and  fortune, — 
are  all  here,  in  the  west.  The  bullion  for  all  their  banks,  and 
the  material  for  all  their  factories,  mills  and  forges,  come 
from  the  west.  All  their  railroads  lead  to  or  from  the  west, 
and  all  the  business  that  maintains  them  is  furnished  by 
the  west.  The  very  existence  of  the  nation  depends  upon 
the  west. 

The  total  valuation  of  New  York  city,  real  estate  and  per- 
sonal property,  under  the  census  of  1890,  was  $2,106,484,905; 
and  of  Boston,  $981,269,913; — a  grand  aggregate  for  both  of 
$3,087,754,818.  According  to  the  same  census  reports,  the 
yearly  value  of  the  farm  products  of  the  country — largely  of 
the  west — was  $2,460,107,454,  and  the  annual  mineral  yield 
amounted  to  $678,000,734.  Add  $250,000,000  a  year  for  the 
timber  and  lumber,  and  $50,000,000  for  the  fish,  game  and 
other  minor  items;  and  all  ordinary  arithmetic  staggers 
before  the  gigantic  sum  of  $3,438,108,188,  as  one  year's  pro- 
duction of  the  farms,  mines  and  forests  of  the  Union — almost 
wholly  of  the  west.  So,  if  New  York  and  Boston  were  swept 
from  the  face  of  the  continent,  wiped  oflf  the  earth,  and  the 
very  ground  on  which  they  stand  buried  in  the  depths  of  the 
sea,  a  single  western  crop — one  season's  yield  of  western 
fields  and  pastures,  mines  and  woodlands — would  make  good 
all  the  loss,  and  furnish  a  surplus  of  $350,353,370' 


The  valuation  of  the  entire  state  of  New  York,  in  1890, 
was  $3785,910,313,  and  of  Massachusetts,  $2,154,134,626;  or 
a  total  for  both  commonwealths,  including  their  metropolises, 
of  $5,940,044,939.  So  two  years'  produce  of  western  ranches, 
farms,  forests  and  mines,— amounting  to  $6,876,216,376,— 
would  pay  for  both  states,  buy  them  outright,  and  leave  a 
balance  of  $936,169,437! 

In  view  of  such  facts,  it  does  not  seem  unpardonably  pre- 
sumptuous to  suggest,  that  a  trifle  less  confidence  of  asser- 
tion would  become  the  omniscients  of  the  orient,  when  they 
speak  of  the  Occident.  Even  a  Harvard  professor,  or  a  Man- 
hattan editor,  might  find  a  number  of  things  worth  his 
knowing,  west  of  that  monumental  blasphemy  in  bronze, 
the  Bedloe's  Island  Liberty  Statue;— and  a  few,  perhaps,' 
west  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Rockies.  Incredible  as  it 
may  appear,  investigation  would  -»ossibly  show  that  there 
are,  in  this  part  of  God's  glorious  universe,  some  truths,— 
great  truths  in  the  abstract,  and  truths  in  the  concrete,— 
that  have  not  yet  been  fully  comprehended  by  the  most 
accomplished  oarsman  of  a  Yale  boat-crew,  or  the  most  pro- 
foundly erudite  captain  of  a  Princeton  football-team. 

The  Forum,  one  of  the  so-called  great  eastern  magazines, 
—a  typical  exponent  of  the  Intelligence  and  Culture,  to  which 
the  Atlantic  wavelets  plash  perpetual  peans  of  admiring 
adoration,— recently  contained  an  article,  on  "The  Passing 
of  the  Boom,"  that  has  attracted  more  attention  than  its 
intrinsic  merits  seem  to  warrant.  It  v  as  from  the  pen  of  a 
well-known  and,  considering  his  longitudinal  environments, 
usually  well-informed  writer— himself  the  successful  manager 
of  a  leading  periodical.  Starting  out  with  the  bold  assump- 
tions, that  this  country  has  now  been  fully  explored,  its 
mighty  wildernesses  subdued,  its  lands  settled  and  brought 
under  cultivation,  its  mines  discovered  and  opened  up,  its 
great  railways  built,  its  towns  and  cities  founded,  and  all  its 

5 


M 


fesources  and  possibilities  revealed,— he  maintains  that  hgnce- 
forth  Americans  must  adapt  themselves  to  the  slow-going 
methods  of  old-world  peoples;  must  lay  aside  their  romantic 
and  speculative  notions,  and  become  a  nation  of  plodders 
and  toilers  and  penny-savers— modeled  jjcnerally  on  the 
European-peasant  plan.  And  he  winds  up  his  pessimistic 
pronunciamento  with  the  declaration,  that  "the  day  of  the 
boom  is  past;  this  country  will  never  see  another." 

Papers  hostile  to  the  west,  and  to  one  of  its  long-recog- 
nized  modes  of  development,  have  republished  the  boom- 
smiting,  boom-squelching  diatribe,  far  and  wide;  and  yet, 
from  its  titular  headline  to  its  last  oracular  assertion,  it  is 
arrant  nonsense,  founded  on  baldest  fiction.  Every  premise 
is  baseless,  and  every  conclusion  preposterous,  as  the  next 
brief  chapter  will  endeavor  to  show. 


6 


DEFINITION  OF  THE  BOOM. 


It  is  the  Natural  Movement  of  People  De:iiring  to  Better  Their 
Condition— Where  the  Next  Gj^t  Boom  WiU  Be. 


\ll/HAT  ]s  a  boom?  In  the  western  sense,  it  is  a  rush 
VV  of  people  into  any  region  offering  new  and  enhanced 
possibihties  of  improvement  in  condition  or  estate  So  long 
as  the  human  heart,  and  its  ambitions  and  longings,  remain 
as  they  are,  a  boom  will  take  place  whenever  and  wherever 
any  new  country  or  section  of  country  is  opened  up,  pre- 
senting new  riches  of  resource  and  opportunity;  new  advan- 
tages of  soil,  forest,  mine  or  climate,  and  new  and  increased 
chances  for  energy  and  enterprise  to  win  fortune  speedily 
To  say,  that  "the  day  of  the  boom  is  past,"  is  to  announce 
that  the  last  great  realm  of  earthly  possibility  has  been 
explored,  and  all  its  treasures  laid  bare;— that  the  world's 
ultimate  mysteries  have  been  solved,  and  there  is  no  longer 
an  Unknown  Land. 

Could  absurdity  farther  go?  The  history  of  humanity 
began  in  Asia,  and  there  Christianity  had  its  birth;  and  civil- 
ization had  grown  old  in  Africa,  when  Europe  was  a  wilder- 
ness of  naked  barbarians,  and  America  had  never  been 
dreamt  of.  They  are  the  old  world's  oldest  lands.  Armies 
have  marched  and  countermarched;  ehipires  and  dynasties 
have  risen,  and  flourished,  and  fallen;  scientists  have  chipped 
and  delved,  and  squabbled;  historians  and  philosophers  have 
written,  prophets  and  apostles  have  preached  and  taught, 
and  poets  have  sung,  for  untold  ages,  on  their  ancient  soil;— 

7 


and,  today,  exploration  has  but  penetrated  the  outermost  rim 
of  their  mighty  areas,  and  their  characteristics  and  capabili- 
ties are  almost  as  much  matters  of  romance  and  conjecture 
as  they  were  in  the  days  of  the  Ca?sars  and  the  Ptolemies.  A 
boom,  whose  possible  extent  and  consequences  no  mortal 
intelligence  can  foresee,  is  now  following  the  Russian  trans- 
mundane  railway  into  Siberia,  long  pictured  as  an  uninhabit- 
able desert  of  perpetual  snows,  howling  wolves  and  frozen 
prison  horrors; — and,  during  the  past  eight  or  ten  years,  a 
boom,  such  as  this  generation  has  never  seen  surpassed, 
has  swept  over  those  desolate  South  African  crags,  whence 
Israel's  royal  Wise  Man  may  possibly  have  obtained  the 
gold  that  glittered,  on  his  grand  temple  spires,  in  the  Judean 
sunlight  of  four  thousand  years  ago. 

Think  of  it.  Daring  explorers  still  groping  and  fighting 
their  way  through  the  coast  jungles  of  the  lands  of  which 
Moses  and  Herodotus  wrote,  and  David  and  Hesiod  and 
Homer  sang.  Booms  just  beginning  in  "King  Solomon's 
Mines,"  in  the  domains  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  and  on  the 
trails  of  Tamerlane  and  Genghis  Khan.  While  a  New  York 
magazine  scribbler  declares, — and  alleged  great  newspapers 
endorse  his  declaration  by  reproducing  it, — that  exploration 
is  finished,  there  is  nothing  more  to  be  discovered,  and  "the 
day  of  the  boom  is  pa^t,"  in  a  hemisphere  against  which  the 
quaint  old  scows  of  Columbus  drifted  but  as  j'^esterday! 

America  is,  by  many  centuries,  the  newest  of  the  great 
continental  divisions  of  the  globe,  and  the  American  Grert 
•West  is  the  newest  part  of  this  new  wonderland.  The  grass 
has  hardly  sprouted  on  the  graves  of  Daniel  Boone,  Merri- 
weather  Lewis  and  William  Clark.  The  moccasined  footprints 
of  the  first  white  men,  who  ever  trod  on  western  soil,  have 
scarcely  faded  from  the  mountains  and  valleys  and  plains. 
The  exploration  of  the  west  has  not  begun.  Discovery  and 
boom  have  marched  hand  in  hand,  and  boom  has  followed 


8 


boom,  through  all  its  brief,  bright  history.     The  great  agri- 
cultural boom,  the  free  lands  and  free  homes  boom,  in  Illi- 
nois, Iowa,   Kansas,   Nebraska,  and  all  the  Mississippi  and 
Missouri   valleys;   the    copper,    iron   and   timber   booms    in 
Michigan  and  Wisconsin;  California's  wondrous  gold  boom 
of  fifty  years  ago,  and  her  fruit-growing  and  townsite-platting 
boom  of  later  days;  the  mighty  mining  booms  in  Colorado. 
Nevada,  Utah,  Idaho  and  Montana;  the  Comstock,   Dead- 
wood    and     Coeur    d'Alene,    Leadville    and     Cripple    Creek 
booms;  the  Texas  and  Wyoming  cattle-raising  booms,  and  a 
hundred  others,  have  all  been  grand  rushes  of  population  fol- 
lowing some  new  discovery  of  riches  and  possibilities,  and 
have  all  been  potent  factors  in  western  growth  and  progress 
But  the  west  is  still  unexplored  and  unknown.     Its  fabulous 
treasures    of    metal    and    mineral    are    unprospected     and 
undreamt-of.       The  greatest  mines  of  earth  are  vet  to  be 
opened  in  this  western  land  of  miracles  and  wonders.    Moun- 
tains of  gold  and  silver  ore,  beside  which  all  the  famed  riches 
or  Ophir  and  of  Ind,  of  Golconda  and  the  Comstock  Lode, 
will  some  day  sink  to  beggars'  pence,  yet  rear  their  proud 
heads  to  heaven,  untouched  by  pick  or  spade  or  drill.     The 
veritable    treasure-houses    of   the    genii    and    the    gods    yet 
await  the  enterprise  and  muscle  of  the  sturdy  prospectors  and 
miners,  who  are  destined  to  fire  the  avarice  and  the  envy  of 
the  world  with  their  Midas-surpassing  wealth  of  solid  ducats. 
From  Alaska  to  Nicaragua,  the  whole  vast  system  of  Rocky 
Mountains  and  Cordilleras  is  an  almost  unbroken  ore  and 
mineral  bed.     Although,  since  the  days  of  the  Montezumas 
and  the  Incas,  thousands  of  millions  have  been  taken  from 
it,  not  one  ten-thousandth  part  of  it  has  ever  felt  the  tap  of 
a  prospector's  hammer.     The  surface  dirt  is  hardly  broken, 
the    glittering   hoards    are   scarcely    touched.         The    great 
bonanza  fortunes  are  yet  to  be  won ! 

In  a  wild  and  hitherto  unheard-of  region  of  the  Pacific 
Northwest,  discoveries  have  just  been  made,  and  are  daily 


being  made,  that  bid  fair  to  eclipse  all  the  dazzling  miractes 
oi  the  past;  and  this  Forum  boom-annihilator  will  only  have 
to  live  a  few  months  longer  to  witness  such  a  boom,  as  the 
new  world  has  never  seen  since  the  California  golden  days 
of  1849 — if  even  that  is  not  surpassed. 

Where  is  this  new  El  Dorado?  It  is  in  the  Kootenai 
country  of  British  Columbia — itself  an  almost  unknown 
realm,  in  regard  to  which  a  few  condensed  facts  will  just  here 
serve  to  form  another  short  chapter. 


10 


IIL 
BRITISH  COLUMBIA. 


A  Few  Brief  Bits  of  Information  About  the  Great  Northwestern 

Empire,  in  Which  Lies  the  World's 

Coming  Bonanzaland. 


O  TRETCHING  from  49°  to  60°  of  north  latitude,  and  from 
O     the    Rocky    mountains    to    the    Pacific    ocean,    British 
Columbia  is  a  vast  empire  of  383,000   square  miles;— more 
than  three  times  as  large  as  all  Great  Britain  and  Ireland; 
and  within  a  trifle  of  as  big  as  Maine,  New  Hampshire.  Ver- 
mont, Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York, 
New  Jersey,    Pennsylvania,    Delaware,    Maryland.    Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  Soulh  Carolina  and  Georgia,  which  all  com- 
bined have  but  392,440  square  miles  of  territory.     It  has  a 
thousand  miles  of  coast  line,  and  many  thousand   miles  of 
navigable  lakes  and  rivers.     It  is  a  land  of  huge  mountains, 
fertile  valleys  and  magnificent  forests.     Its  climate  in  all  the 
coast  regions  is  as  mild  as  that  of  southern  England,  or  of 
Maryland.     Its  soil  yields  bounteously  all  the  most  valuable 
grains,  grasses,  fruits  and  vegetables.    Sixty  bushels  of  wheat, 
and  ninety  bushels  of  oats,  to  the  acre,  are  not  unusual  crops.' 
The  earl  of  Aberdeen,  whose  brilliant  and  accomplished  wife 
recently  delivered  the  commencement  address  at  the  Chicago 
University,  has  a  13,000-acre  farm  near  Kelowna,  on  Okana- 
gan  lake,  where  he  raises  large  quantities  of  grain,  hops,  all 
varieties    of  fruit,    and   fine   yellow-leaf   tobacco.      Figs    are 
grown  at  Agassiz  in  the  Fraser  river  valley.     The    fisheries 
are  immense  and  profitable.    The  city  of  New  Westminster 

11 


alone,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Fraser  river,  has  forty  salmon- 
canneries,  that  employ  8,000  men  during  the  fishing  season, 
and  pay  out  $750,000  a  year  in  wages.  Victoria  and  Van- 
couver are  beautiful  and  prosperous  cities  of  20,000  popula- 
tion, each. 

Before  the  recent  marvelous  Kootenai  discoveries,  Brit- 
ish Columbia  mines  had  yielded,  according  to  the  official, 
government  reports,  over  $100,000,000  in  gold,  silver,  copper, 
lead  and  other  minerals.  Two  miles  of  gravel  on  Williams 
creek,  in  the  Canboo  region,  panned  out  $20,000,000,  under 
the  most  primitive  working,  with  the  crudest  implements; 
and  early  prospectors  on  Wild  Horse  creek  and  other 
streams  near  Fort  Steele  washed  out  $6,000,000  in  gold  dust, 
in  two  years.  These  diggings  lie  nearly  five  hundred  miles 
apart,  and  the  discoveries  of  the  last  few  months  seem  to  indi- 
cate, that  the  whole  vast  intervening  region  is  an  almost 
unbroken  mineral  bed.  Eminent  experts,  in  fact,  declare 
that,  from  Washington  and  Montana  to  Alaska,  every  moun- 
tain range  and  spur  in  all  the  Columbian  dominions  of  the 
Widow  Victoria  will  possibly  be  found  ribbed  and  seamed 
with  royal  ore,  and  every  stream  and  streamlet  bottomed 
with  golden  sands.  Think  of  50,000  square  miles,  with  a  pos- 
sible bonanza  in  every  acre! 

In  the  southeastern  part  of  this  huge  realm  of  gr^at  pos- 
sibilities is  the  new  world's  coming  Boomland — the  new- 
found Gods'-Treasury  of  Kootenai.  Let  a  new  chapter  begin 
the  story  of  its  wonders — although  all  description  must  fall 
short  of  giving  more  than  the  faintest  idea  of  the  incredible 
truth. 


12 


IV. 
THE  KOOTENAI  COUNTRY. 


A  Land  of  Fairy-Stories  in  Real  Life— Just  Discovered^  and  Already 
Shipping  $1,000,000  of  Ore  a  Month— A  Capitaliza- 
tion of  $52,975,000  in  a  Single  Week. 


KOOTENAI!  It  was  unheard-of  but  a  few  months  ago. 
Even  now,  scarcely  one  person  in  a  thousand  knows 
how  the  name  is  pronounced,  or  where  the  region  lies.  The 
pronunciation  is  "Koot-e-nay,"  with  two-thirds  of  the  accent 
on  the  first  syllable,  and  the  other  third  on  the  last.  A  ref- 
erence to  the  accompanying  excellent  map  of  the  Oregon 
Railway  and  Navigation  Company  will  show  its  whereabouts. 
With  eye,  finger  or  pencil,  trace  any  of  the  great  semi-trans- 
continental highways  to  Denver,  Salt  Lake  or  Ogden.  Then 
glide  along  either  of  the  plainly-marked  pathways  to  Hunt- 
ington, on  the  southern  rim  of  the  great  eastern  Oregon 
gold-fields;  and,  from  there,  follow  the  only  line  to  Spokane, 
in  the  new  and  richly  resourceful  state  of  Washington. 
Thence  push  northward  over  the  track  of  the  Spokane  Falls 
and  Northern  railroad  to  the  international  boundary  line;— 
and,  at  Waneta,  or  Fort  Sheppard,  the  Kootenai  Country  is 
entered;  the  world's  newest  Bonanzaland,  where  a  thousand, 
or  a  million,  fortunes  await  their  lucky  or  plucky  finders, 
is  reached. 

It  stretches  from  49°  to  52°  north  latitude,  and  from  the 
Rocky  mountains  to  the  Gold  range  we?t  of  the  Columbia 
river,  and  has  an  area  of  about  26,000  square  miles,  or  16,500,- 
000  acres.    The  Purcell  range  of  snow-capped  giants  divides 

13 


it  into  East  and  West  Kootenai,  each  division  as  large  as 
Rhode  Island,  Connecticut  and  Delaware  combined.  Every 
foot,  of  it  apparently  holds  mineral  possibilities,  but  so  far 
the  rush  of  discovery  and  development  has  been  chiefly  con- 
fined to  West  Kootenai,  which  includes  the  Trail  Creek,  Nel- 
son, Ainsworth  and  Kaslo-Slbcan  districts. 

Let  him,  who  enters  here,  leave — not  hope,  but — all  his 
past  experiences,  impressions  and  standards  of  estimation 
behind.  He  treads  enchanted  ground.  He  is  in  a  region 
whose  whole  history  is  romance;  where  all  the  gorgeous 
dreams  of  the  Arabian  Nights  seem  every-day  realities,  and 
the  wildest  fairy-tales  become  tame  and  commonplace.  A 
few  brief  items  must  serve  to  furnish  some  idea  of  the  incred- 
ible truths,  the  impossible  facts,  against  which  one  stumbles 
at  every  turn. 

Think  of  a  region,  rugged  beyond  all  description  or  imag- 
ination; an  endless  maze  of  mountains  from  7,000  to  10,000 
feet  high,  rocky,  precipitous,  covered  with  almost  impene- 
trable forests  of  gigantic  timber,  and  buried  for  six  months 
of  the  year  under  from  two  to  twenty  feet  of  snow.  A  waste, 
howling  wilderness  five  or  six  years  ago.  Scarcely  two  hun- 
dred hardy  hunters,  trappers  and  prospectors  in  all  its  vast 
solitudes,  at  the  beginning  of  1892.  Virtually  unexplored 
and  unknown  a  few  months  ago,  and  accessible  only  by 
pack-mule  and  snowshoes.  Today,  one  of  the  golden  won- 
ders of  the  world,  and  the  soon-to-be  scene  of  the  greatest 
boom  in  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Fully  50,000 
busy,  eager,  enterprising  people  digging,  drifting,  tunneling, 
building  and  prospecting  among  its  savage  crags  and  yawn- 
ing canyons.  Traversed  by  three  or  four  railroads,  each  a 
marvel  of  engineering,  and  the  oldest  measuring  its  history 
by  weeks  or  months.  New  lines,  branches  and  extensions 
planned  and  pushing  in  all  directions.  Trains  all  running  as 
double-headers,  with  two  locomotives  apiece,  and  still  unable 

14 


to  carry  the  crowds  of  fortune-seekers,  and  masses  of  machin- 
ery, material  and  supplies,  ceaselessly  hurrying  in,  and  the 
ever-increasing  shipments  of  rich  ores  pouring  out.  Stauncn 
and  handsomely  appointed  steamers,  thronged  and  heavy- 
laden,  plowing  their  liquid  way,  to  and  fro,  on  all  the  lakes 
and  streams.  Twenty  or  thirty  flourishing  camps,  towns  and 
cities,  that  have  risen,  like  magic  exhalations,  from  the  wild 
mountain-sides  and  in  the  ragged  gulches.  Over  a  hundred 
producing  mines  that,  during  the  first  nine  weeks  of  1897, 
shipped  out  16,174  tons  of  ore  and  matte,  worth  $2,030,144— 
or  in  even  figures,  $1,000,000  a  month!  Ninety-eight  mines 
listed  in  the  stock-exchange,  with  a  total  capital  of  $94,450,- 
000;  and  fifty-seven  new  mining  companies,  with  an  aggre- 
gate capitalization  of  $52,975,000,  organized  during  the  single 
week  ending  March  9— an  average  of  $8,829,666  a  day,  leaving 
Sunday  out  of  the  count! 

From  the  Washington  and  Idaho  line  to  the  head  of  Koot- 
enai and  Slocan  lakes,  the  whole  air  is  filled  with  glittering 
fairy-stories,  that  are  all  true;  and  the  bewildered  traveler 
jostles  everywhere  against  the  gilded  creatures  of  oriental 
rhapsody  and  fable,  in  real  life.  Two  poor  prospectors,  in 
one  day,  located  the  five  claims  that  are  now  the  Le  Roi,  War 
Eagle,  Center  Star,  Idaho  and  Virginia  mines,  worth  from 
$10,000,000  to  $15,000,000.  Another  prospector  found  a  single 
boulder  in  the  Slocan  region,  that  yielded  7,800  ounces  of 
silver  and  46,800  pounds  of  lead.  A  man,  comparatively 
recently,  bought  for  twelve  dollars  and  a  half— $12.50— a 
claim  that  has  since  paid  over  $300,000  in  dividends,  and,  at 
the  actual  selling  price  of  its  stock  today,  is  worth  $4,000,000, 
cash.  A  Spokane  saloon-keeper,  two  or  three  years  ago, 
grumblingly  accepted  stock  in  a  Trail  Creek  mine,  in  pay- 
ment of  a  whisky  bill  of  ten  or  fifteen  dollars,  because  it  was 
that  or  nothing.  The  stock  has  paid  him  $25,900  in  dividends, 
and  is  .low  worth  $296,000  in  gold.  The  owners  of  a  claim 
near  Sandon  drifted  two  feet,  struck  ore,  and  had  a  shipping 

16 


mine  with  one  day's  work.  A  Rossland  washerwoman,  about 
New  Year's  of  1895,  took  a  few  hundred  shares  of  Le  Roi 
stock  for  a  laundry  bill.  It  has  since  paid  her  seventy  dollars 
in  dividends  on  every  hundred  shares,  and  every  share  is 
today  worth  eight  dollars.  A  young  Virginia  tenderfoot, 
'  hen  it  cost  from  forty  to  fifty  dollars  a  ton  to  ship  and  treat 
ore,  dug  a  carload  out  of  a  mountain-side  near  Sandon,  and 
was  laughed  at  by  all  his  neighbors  when  he  told  them  he 
expected  it  to  net  him  $8,000.  It  brought  him  nearly  $9,000 
above  all  charges.  A  young  carpenter,  in  1895,  did  two  days' 
prospecting  near  Rossland,  struck  ore,  and  a  few  months 
later  sold  out  for  $50,000,  cash.  A  Spokane  lawyer  bought  a 
half-interest  in  a  claim  between  Sandon  and  Three  Forks, 
for  $500.  Last  October,  he  sold  out  for  $150,000,  cash,  and 
the  mine  has  since  paid  more  than  twice  the  price  in  divi- 
dends. 

But  why  continue  an  endless  enumeration?  Pages  could 
be  filled  with  such  instances,  and  there  will  be  others — 
thousands  of  them — before  the  end  of  1897.  Nothing  is 
impossible,  nothing  is  extravagant,  in  a  region  where  every 
mountain  seems  to  be  a  huge  snov;-capped  or  glacier- 
crowned  ore-bin;  and  where  ore,  in  carload  lots,  runs  from 
one  to  twenty  ounces  of  gold  and  100  to  300  pounds  of  cop- 
per, or  from  100  to  1,000  ounces  of  silver  and  300  to  1,200 
pounds  of  lead,  to  the  ton!  The  gold-and-copper  ore  is 
chiefly  found  in  the  Trail  Creek  district,  of  which  Rossland  is 
the  capital  and  center;  while  the  bulk  of  the  silver-lead  ore 
is  produced  in  the  Slocan  country,  which  in  a  general  way 
includes  the  Nelson  and  Ainsworth  mines.  Each  is  worthy 
of  a  volume,  but  a  chapter  must  suffice;  and,  as  Trail  and 
Rossland  are  most  widely  known,  they  come  in  for  mention 
first. 


16 


1'  I 


V. 
^  TRAIL  CREEK.'^ 


The   Far -Famed    Gold -and -Copper   District,    and   Its   Magical 
Metropolis,  Rossland— A  Marvelous  Story. 


ABOUT  six  miles  north  of  the  international  boundary-line, 
a  bold,  clear  mountain  stream  comes  tumbling  into  the 
Columbia  river  from  the  west.  Its  length,  by  its  own  winding 
and  twisting  course,  is  about  twelve  miles,  though  in  an  air- 
line it  is  only  six  miles  from  its  head  to  its  mouth.  The  great 
trail  east  and  west  across  British  Columbia,  used  first  by  the 
old  Hudson's  Bay  Company  hunters,  trappers  and  traders,, 
and  later  by  the  early  placer  miners  in  the  Wild  Horse 
country,  followed  this  creek  its  entire  length,  from  which 
fact  it  took  its  name  of  "Trail  Creek,"  now  becommg  famous- 
in  the  gold-mining  annals  of  the  world.  Old  prospectors 
have  known  for  years,  that  there  was  gold  about  the  head- 
waters of  the  stream,  but  the  region  was  so  inaccessible  that 
no  attempt  at  mining  was  made  until  1887,  when  George 
Bowerman,  of  Spokane,  dug  a  number  of  prospect  holes  on 
Red  Mountain,  today  perhaps  the  vastest  known  body  of  gold 
ore  in  existence.  Finding  nothing  that  assayed  more  than 
$12  or  $15  to  the  ton,  he  crossed  over  the  site  of  the  present 
city  of  Rossland,  and  located  the  Lily  May,  a  short  distance 
south.  After  doing  some  work  on  the  claim,  he  abandoned 
it  and  went  back  to  Spokane.  Nearly  three  years  later,  in 
July,  1890,  Joe  Bourgeois  and  Joe  Morris,  on  a  prospecting 
trip,  struck  Red  Mountain,  and  in  one  day  located  five  claims, 
— the  Le  Roi,  War  Eagle,  Center  Star,  Idaho  and  Virginia, — 

17 


I 


all  of  them  now  known  throughout  the  world.  The  only 
recording  office  in  the  region  was  at  Nelson,  at  the  foot  of 
Kootenai  lake,  sixty  miles  away,  which,  in  that  rugged  wilder- 
ness of  almost  perpendicular  mountains,  mighty  forests,  and 
dense,  tangled  undergrowth,  was  a  long  and  weary  journey. 
At  the  office,  they  met  E.  S.  Topping,  and  offered  him  his 
choice  of  the  claims,  if  he  would  pay  the  fee  of  $12.50  for 
recording  the  five.  After  an  examination  of  their  ore  sam- 
ples, he  accepted  the  ofTer,  paid  the  twelve  dollars  and  a  half, 
and  chose  the  Le  Roi.  So  began  the  history  of  one  of  earth's 
greatest  mines  and  mining-camps. 

Outfitting  himself  with  samples  of  the  ore  and  assay  cer- 
tificates. Topping  went  dov;n  to  Colville,  where  he  met  Colo- 
nel W.  M.  Ridpath  and  George  M.  Forster,  two  enterprising 
Spokane  lawyers,  and  tried  to  interest  them  in  the  claim. 
They  liked  the  looks  of  the  ore,  and  asked  him  to  let  them 
take  the  samples  down  to  Spokane  and  submit  them  to  Oliver 
Durant,  an  old  Utah  and  C(tur  d'Alene  mining  man,  adding: 
"What  he  says  goes."  Durant  was  so  favorably  impressed 
with  the  specimens,  that  an  agreement  was  soon  made  to  take 
sixteen-thirtieths  of  the  claim  for  $3,000  in  work  to  be  done 
within  six  months.  Durant  reached  the  ground,  with  men 
and  supplies,  in  November,  1890;  and,  in  spite  of  deep  snow, 
work  was  begun  in  December.  Early  in  1891,  enough  of  ore 
to  make  a  carload  was  sent  out  on  pack  mules  to  the  Colum- 
bia river,  then  by  boat  to  the  railroad,  and  on  to  a  smelter  at 
Butte,  Montana.  It  yielded  $86.40  to  the  ton  in  gold  and 
copper,  but  the  enormous  expenses  of  transportation  and 
treatment  left  little  of  the  proceeds.  The  experiment,  how- 
ever, established  the  infinite  possibilities  of  the  mine,  with 
improved  facilities  for  handling  and.  treating  the  ore.  A 
company  was  organized  in  November,  1891,  with  a  capitaliza- 
tion of  500,000  shares  at  five  dollars  a  share.  The  shares  were 
not  in  much  demand,  and  sold  at  anything  from  a  cent  or  two 
up,  while  work  went  on  in  slow  and  desultory  fashion.     An 

18 


t 


I 


occasional  shipment  of  ore  was  made  by  mule,  boat  and  rail 
to  far-off  smelters;  but,  with  shipping  and  milling  charges  in 
the  neighborhood  of  $50  a  ton,  little  could  be  done.  Then,  at 
a  depth  of  200  feet,  the  shaft  ran  into  a  body  of  ore  that 
showed  up  only  about  $6  to  the  ton— practically  worthless 
under  the  existing  conditions.  On  top  of  all  these  depressing 
influences,  came  the  slump  in  values  from  the  closing  of  the 
Indian  mints  against  silver,  and  the  ruinous  panic  in  this 
country.  There  was  general  discouragement  in  the  isolated 
camp. 

It  was  during  these  gloomy  days,  that  L.  F.  Williams,  a 
court  stenographer,  is  said  to  have  traded  a  "cayuse"  for 
15,000  shares  of  the  Le  Roi  stock.  He  is  now  secretary  of 
the  great  bonanza  company,  and  his  stock  has  already  pJd 
him  $10,500  in  dividends,  and  is  today  worth  $120,000.  cash. 
In  the  same  dark  period,  W.  J.  Harris,  who  was  keeping  a 
saloon  in  Spokane,  took  37,ooo  shares  of  the  stock,  in  pay- 
ment of  a  liquor  bill— took  the  stock,  much  against  his  will. 
because  he  had  to  take  it  or  nothing.  He  considered  it  vir- 
tually worthless,  and  tried  to  trade  it  to  his  partner  for  a 
half-interest  in  a  horse  he  owned.  The  partner  declined  with 
emphasis;  so  Harris  had  to  keep  his  stock,  because  he  could 
not  get  rid  of  it.  Within  the  last  fifteen  months,  it  has  paid 
him  $25,900  in  dividends,  and,  at  present  market  prices,  is 
worth  $296,000  in  gold.  The  region  abounds  with  such  rem- 
iniscences. 

Topping  let  his  remaining  interest  in  the  Le  Roi  go.  Oli- 
ver Durant  sold  out  and,  with  A.  H.  Tarbet,  of  Salt  Lake, 
bought  the  Center  Star  and  Idaho.  Many  other  claims  had 
been  located  in  the  meantime,  and  development  work  was 
being  done  on  the  War  Eagle,  Center  Star,  Virginia,  Josie. 
Enterprise,  and  Nickel  Plate,  and  every  exploration  shaft  and 
drift  showed  ore.  The  men,  who  were  working  the  claims, 
knew  they  had  vast  ore-bodies  that,  with  any  reasonable  ship- 
ping  and   smelting   facilities,    would   prove   bonanza-mines; 


19 


f 


i  I 


and,  with  true  miners'  faith,  they  believed  the  ore  itself  would, 
sooner  or  later,  bring  the  facilities.  Their  faith  was  justified 
by  results.  Late  in  1893,  the  British  Columbian  gold  com- 
missioner for  West  Kootenai  ordered  the  building  of  a  road 
from  the  camp  to  the  mouth  01  Trail  creek  on  the  Columbia, 
and  the  business  men  of  Northport  built  first  a  trail  and  then 
a  road  up  from  that  place.  Transportation  and  smelter 
charges  came  down  from  $40  or  $50  a  ton,  to  $27.50,  and  in 
October,  1894,  to  $16.  With  the  completion,  in  the  winter  of 
1893-4,  of  the  first  road  down  Trail  creek,  over  which  a  sled  or 
wagon  could  pass,  hundreds  of  tons  of  ore  on  the  dumps  of 
the  Le  Roi  and  War  Eagle  became  valuable,  profitable  ship- 
ments began  immediately,  $75,000  was  speedily  realized,  and 
the  boom  was  on!  Prospectors,  miners,  speculators  and 
promoters  rushed  in,  although  the  region  was  still  so  remote 
and  inaccessible,  that  it  was  a  common  thing  for  a  miner  to 
pay  a  dollar  to  have  a  letter  carried  out  to  where  it  could 
be  mailed. 

A  town  became  a  necessity,  and  Rossland  was  founded. 
And  here  begins  another  crystalized  fairy-tale — another  story 
of  impossibilities  achieved,  of  municipal  miracles  wrought. 
Talk  about  Deadwood,  and  Leadville,  and  Cripple  Creek? 
In  their  palmiest  and  boomiest  days,  they  were  tame  and 
snail-paced  compared  with  this  British  American  wonder. 
In  February,  1894,  there  were  but  four  log-cabins  where 
Rossland  now  stands.  The  first  of  these  was  the  office  of 
The  Weekly  Miner,  a  boom  paper,  showing  that  the  pioneers 
of  the  new  world's  grandest  mining-camp  knew  which  end 
of  city-building  to  begin  at.  January  i,  1895,  the  place  had 
about  200  people.  The  first  native-born  citizen  was  a  girl, 
who  put  in  an  appearance  August  5,  1895.  She  was  christened 
Columbia,  and  the  townsite  company  presented  her  a  deed 
to  a  corner-lot. 

In  April,  1897, — ^just  eighteen  months  later, — Rossland  is 
a  city  of  from  8,000  to  10,000  busy  and  enterprising  people, 

20 


CO 

05 
00 


o 

ad 
Q 
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tr. 

O 


21 


with  electric  lights,  telegraph,  telephone  and  messenger  ser- 
vice; .water- works,   churches,    good   schools;  two    live   daily 
papers,  and  a  half-dozen  weeklies  and  monthlies;  and  between 
forty  and  fifty  hotels,  all  crowded  to  overflowing.    With  the 
snow  everywhere  from  two  to  ten  feet  deep,  over  300  buildings 
are  going  up    and    in    every    stage    of    completion.     There 
are  scarcely  50  painted  houses  in  the  whole  place.    There  is  no 
time  for  paint.     Shelter,  walls  and  roofs, — places  to  live  and 
do  business  in, — are  what  are  needed.     The  arrivals  of  new 
people  average  100  a  day,  or  3,000  a  month.     Every  building 
is  filled,  pounced  upon  and  occupied,  as  soon  as  it  is  finished 
— often   before.     When    the    great    Bank    of    British    North 
America  established   its   branch   here,   it   rented  a  building 
occupied  by  a  barber.     When  the  time  came  to  take  posses- 
sion, the  tonsorial  artist  could  not  find  another  room  in  all 
the  town;  so  an  amicable  arrangement  was  made,  character- 
istic of  the  free-and-easy  good-nature  of  a  mining-camp  too 
big  and  powerful  and  prosperous  to   cavil  about  trifles  or 
stick  at  conventionalities.    The  bank  moved  in,  and  ran  the 
finances  of  the  region  from  nine  in  the  morning  till  three  in 
the  afternoon,  and  the  gentleman   of  the  razor  and  shears 
clipped  and  shaved  the  long-haired,  stubbly-chinned  bonanza- 
kings  during  all  the  other  hours.     The  bank  soon  erected 
a  suitable  building,  and  the  Bank  of  Montreal  also  has  its 
own   quarters.     Private  banks  and  brokers'  offices   abound. 
Assayers,   experts  and   engineers  swarm   like   flies   about   a 
molasses-barrel.    The  streets  are  thronged,  and  every  man 
one  meets  has  his  pockets  filled  with  rocks.     All  are  breezy, 
buoyant,  enthusiastic,  and  the  dolorous  phrase,  "hard  times," 
is  never  heard. 

Two  railroads  fall  far  short  of  being  able  to  do,  with  their 
present  equipment,  all  the  business  oflfered.  Many  of  the 
trains  are  run  as  double-headers,  with  an  engine  at  each  end, 
and  all  are  jammed  with  eager,  hurrying  journeyers.  mostly 
men,  and  loaded  down  with  machinery,  material  and  supplies 

22 


going  in,  or  glittering  masses  '?  ore  coming  out.  Nine  of 
the  mines  last  year,  under  all  the  transportational  disadvan- 
tages, made  these  shipments  of  ore:  Le  Roi,  55,331,900 
pounds;  War  Eagle,  18,019,191;  Ire  n  Mask,  1,408,760;  Josie, 
1,148,000;  Poorman,  678,000;  Crown  Point,  300,000;  May- 
flower, 200,000;  Cliflf,  150,000;  and  Evening  Star,  54,000 — an 
aggregate  of  77,290,751  pour,  is,  or  38,645  tons.  Add  at 
least  5,000,000  pounds  for  numerous  small  shippers,  and  it 
gives  a  grand  total  of  82,290,751  pounds,  or  more  than  41,000 
tons,  worth,  at  the  lowest  expert  estimate,  $2,250,000,  or  about 
$55  a  ton. 

The  mines  in  and  around  the  city  employ  upwards  of 
1,500  men,  whose  wages  average  $3  a  day,  or  $45,000  a  month. 
Add  wood-choppers,  teamsters,  clerks  and  other  outside 
workers,  and  the  Rossland  pay-roll  runs  from  $750,000  to 
$1,000,000  a  year;  and  this  is  rapidly  increasing,  as  new  mines 
are  being  constantly  discovered  and  opened  up,  new  enter- 
prises begun,  and  new  foundations  for  greatness  laid.  The 
population  trebled  during  1896,  and  the  amount  of  machinery 
increased  2,500  per  cent. — that  is,  the  machinery  equipment 
of  the  camp  multiplied  itself  by  twenty-five  in  a  year.  More 
than  2,000  mineral  claims  were  recorded  last  year,  and  the 
mining  foes  for  six  months  ran  over  $50,000.  The  collections 
at  the  three  custom-houses  in  the  Trail  Creek  district,  for  ten 
months  of  the  year,  were:  Rossland,  $71,247;  Trail,  $55,035; 
and  Waneta,  $7,756— a  total  of  $134,038. 

Two  powerful  factors  in  the  growth  of  Rossland,  and  the 
prosperity  of  the  whole  region,  are  the  recent  completion  of 
the  Columbia  and  Red  Mountain  railway,  17  miles  long,  from 
Northport  on  the  Spokane  Falls  and  Northern  road;  and 
the  building  of  a  smelter  at  the  mouth  of  Trail  creek,  on  the 
Columbia  river,  and  a  narrow-gauge  railroad  to  connect 
it  with  the  mines.  The  head  of  the  smelter  enterprise  is  F. 
A.  Heinze,  a  Butte,  Montana,  smelter-owner.  He  learned 
that  tens  of  thousands  of  tons  of  ore,  that  would  be  considered 

23 


r,  i 


incredibly  rich  in  other  regions — ore  running  from  $12  to 
$30  a  ton — were  being  piled  up  on  the  dumps  about  Rossland, 
because  it  would  not  bear  the  heavy  costs  of  hauling  to  the 
Columbia  river,  boating  to  the  railroad,  and  railing  on 
i.ooo  miles  further  to  be  treated.  As  the  mountains  could 
not  come  to  the  smelter,  he  decided  that  the  smelter  should 
go  to  the  mountains.  He  first  made  a  contract  with  the 
Le  Roi  Mining  Company  to  furnish  him  100  tons — 200,000 
pounds — of  ore  a  day,  for  two  years  from  the  time  his  smelter 
was  ready  to  begin  operation,  for  treatment  at  $1 1  a  ton.  He 
selected  the  mouth  of  Trail  creek,  on  the  Columbia  river, 
as  the  site,  and  work  on  the  smelter  was  promptly  begun.  A 
railroad  to  bring  the  ore  to  it  was  needed,  tnd  it  was  no 
small  undertaking  to  build  it.  Although  the  ai^tance  from 
the  chosen  smelter-site  to  Rossland  and  the  mines  was  only 
six  miles  in  an  air-line,  a  difference  of  2,300  feet  in  altitude 
had  to  be  climbed,  and  to  accomplish  it  the  road  wound 
around  for  twelve  miles,  with  two  switchbacks  thrown  in  for 
good  measure  in  zigzagging.  Work  on  the  smelter  began 
in  October,  1895,  but  the  difficulties  of  construction  were  so 
great,  it  was  so  hard  to  get  in  the  necessary  material  and 
supplies,  that  the  first  furnace  was  not  fired  up  until  Feb- 
ruary, 1896.  It  started  with  a  capacity  of  100  tons  a  day,  and 
the  rush  of  ore  immediately  overwhelme  :  it.  The  capacity 
was  doubled,  but  200  tons  a  day  was  a  mere  bagatelle.  The 
War  Eagle,  Iron  Mask,  Crown  Point  and  other  mines  clam- 
ored for  a  chance  to  share  the  smelting  privileges  of  the  Le 
Roi.  Additions  were  built  that  raised  the  capacity  to  450 
tons  a  day,  and  still  the  cry  is.  Far  too  small.  It  is  now  pro- 
posed to  double  its  capacity  once  more,  giving  it  the  ability  to 
reduce  from  800  to  1,000  tons  a  day,  and  making  it  one  of  the 
largest  smelting  plants  in  America.  The  fuel  used  is  wood, 
and  anthracite  coal  from  the  eastern  side  of  the  Rocky  moun- 
tains, which  comes  over  the  Canadian  Pacific  to  Revelstoke 
or  Arrowhead,  and  from  there  in  scows  down  t'le  Arrow  lakes 


24 


and  the  Columbia  river  to  the  smelter.  Around  the  smelter 
has  sprung  up  the  flourishing  town  of  Trail,  with  2,000  popu- 
lation, good  hotels,  schools,  churches  and  a  booming  weekly 
paper.  President  D.  C.  Corbin,  of  the  Spokane  Falls  and 
Northern  railway,  is  said  to  be  planning  to  put  up  a  smelter, 
with  a  capacity  of  250  tons  a  day,  at  Northport,  or  some  other 
point  on  his  line  convenient  to  the  Trail  district  mines.  A 
branch  of  the  Canadian  Pacific,  an  extension  of  the  Columbia 
and  Western  from  Trail  to  Robson,  and  a  line  through 
Crow's  Nest  Pass,  opening  up  immense  coal-fields  and  giving 
direct  connection  with  all  the  great  eastern  railroads,  are 
projected,  and  two  of  them  will  probably  be  put  through  this 
year. 

With  the  improved  transportation  and  smelting  facilities, 
the  cost  of  handling  and  treating  the  ores  has  fallen  to  from 
$10  to  $15  a  ton,  and  there  are  whole  mountain  ranges  of  ore 
around  the  Magical  Metropolis  of  Trail  Creek,  that  will 
yield  from  $15  to  $25  to  the  ton.  A  few  brief  paragraphs  in 
regard  to  these  ores,  and  present  and  prospective  mines,  will 
form  the  next  chapter. 


25 


i! 


VI. 
EXHAUSTLESS  TREASURIES. 


The  Ores   and   the   Mines  that    arc  Making    Trail  Creek  and 
Rossland  Famous  throughout  the  World. 


THE  ore-bodies  have  made  the  mines,  and  the  mines  have 
made  the  district  and  the  city.  Scientific  dissertations 
on  mineral  formations  are  not  usually  of  much  interest  to  the 
non-scientific  reader  or  fortune-seeker,  but  it  may  not  be' 
amiss  just  here  to  indulge  in  a  few  paragraphs  of  pure 
"science"  in  regard  to  the  wondrous  Trail  Creek  ores,  which 
have  already  made  many  bonanza  fortunes,  and,  within  the 
next  few  months,  will  make  many  more.  Honorable  Will- 
iam A.  Carlyle,  provincial  mineralogist  of  British  Columbia, 
in  a  report  to  Honorable  James  Baker,  minister  of  mines, 

says: 

"The  ores  at  Rossland,  barring  the  exceptional  free-milling 
gold  quartz  of  the  O.  K.  mine,  may  be  divided  into  three 
classes: 

"1.  Those  large  deposits  of  coarse-grained,  massive  pyrrho- 
tite,  locally  known  as  the  'iron  ore,'  in  which  little  or  no  value 
in  gold  is  carried. 

"2.  The  ore  found  in  many  claims  on  the  south  belt,  such  as 
the  Lily  May,  Homestake,  Mayflower,  Curlew,  Gopher,  R.  E. 
Lee,  and  others,  in  which  the  sulphides  are  not  pyrrhotite,  but 
iron  pyrites  and  marcasite  (white  iron),  with— in  some  of  these 
mines— much  arsenopyrite,  and  also  zincblende  and  even  galena, 
in  which  case  the  silver  value  exceeds  the  gold,  and  the  percent- 
age of  copper  is  very  small  or  nothing. 

"3.  The  typical  ore  of  the  camp  as  sold  by  the  Le  Roi,  War 
Eagle,  Iron  Mask  and  Josie,  divided  into  first  class  and  second 
class.  The  flrstclass  consists  of  nearly  massive  fine-grained 
pyrrhotite  and  copper  pyrites,  sometimes  with  a  little  magne- 
tite,  or  misplckel,   with  more  or  less  quartz  and  calcite.    In  this 

26 


(I  I 


Hi 


'i. 


class  of  ore,  as  obtained  from  the  lowest  workings  of  the  Le 
Roi,  the  amount  of  quartz  is  much  higher,  the  smelter  returns 
giving  41  to  52.8  per  cent,  silica,  and  20.6  to  26,8  per  cent.  FeO.; 
but  this  is  proving  the  best  ore  in  the  mine.  The  average 
smelter  returns  on  1,200  tons  were  2.6  ounces  of  gold,  1.8  ounces 
of  silver,  and  2.5  per  cent,  of  copper,  or  $53.05,  net,  to  the  ton, 
while    some    shipments  went  as  high  as  4.06  ounces  in  gold. 

"The  second  class  ore— and  the  bulk  of  the  ore  of  the  camp 
shipped  will  most  probably  be  of  this  character  and  value— is 
a  diorite,  with  a  comparatively  small  percentage  of  these  sul- 
phides, but  the  value  is  still  very  good;  1,800  tons  of  the  Le 
Roi  second  class  yielded,  by  smelter  returns,  an  average  of  1.34 
ounces  of  gold,  1.4  ounces  of  silver,  1.6  per  cent,  copper,  or 
$27.97,  net,  to  the  ton.  Mr.  Bellinger,  of  the  Trail  smelter,  kind- 
ly gave  the  average  analysis  of  this  ore  to  be  FeO.  22  per  cent., 
Si02  42.5  per  cent.,  CaO.  7  per  cent.,  MgO.  3  per  cent.,  A1203  18 
per  cent.,  copper  1.5  per  cent.,  S.  6  per  cent." 

The  same  high  authority  pronounces  the  veins  true  fis- 
sures, and  says,  "they  vary  in  width  from  three  to  fifty  feet, 
and  are,  as  a  rule,  covered  with  a  strong  greenstone  capping, 
heavily  impregnated  with  pyritic  or  white  iron."  Another 
eminent  scientist  says:  "The  ore  is  a  massive  mixture  of  cop- 
per and  iron  sulphides,  consisting  of  pyrite,  archalopyrite, 
pyrrhotite,  arsenopyrite  and  mispickel,  with  a  quartz  and 
calcspar  gangue.  This  ore  is  not  often  crystalized,  but  is 
usually  in  a  solid  amorphous  mass.  It  carries  from  one  to 
four  ounces  in  gold,  three  to  ten  per  cent,  copper,  and  a  small, 
varying  amount  of  silver,  usually  less  than  ten  ounces  to  the 
ton." 

Rossland  is  walled  in  on  every  side  by  mountains  of  this 
"massive  mi.'fture"  of  gold,  silver,  copper  and  lead,  blended 
in  all  sorts  of  varying  proportions.  There  are  untold  millions 
f\  tons  of  it,  that  can  be  richly  profitably  milled  at  present 
prices,  and  millions  on  millions  more,  that  can  be  utilized 
as  increasing  railway  and  smelter  facilities  bring  down  the 
costs  of  treatment  to  any  ordinary  standard.  There  are  now 
about  twenty  producing  mines  in  the  camp,  fifteen  of  them 
ore-shippers,  including  the  Le  Roi,  War  Eagle,  Iron  Mask, 


27 


Josie,  Poorman,  Crown  Point,  Mayflower,  Cliff,  Kootenai- 
Columbia  and  I.  X.  L.  Two  of  these  alone,  the  Le  Roi  and 
War  Eagle,  could  furnish  ore  enough,  for  years  to  come,  to 
tax  to  the  utmost  all  existing  means  of  handling.  The  O.  K. 
mine,  which  has  the  only  body  of  free-milling  gold  ore  so  far 
discovered,  does  its  own  reduction  work. 

The  history  of  the  Le  Roi  has  been  given.  Given  away,  in 
1890,  for  $12.50  recording  fees.  A  few  months  later,  sixteen- 
thirtieths  of  it  sold  for  $3,000  in  work.  Capitalized  at  $2,500,- 
000,  and  the  stock  traded  for  horses,  laundry-bills,  drinks, 
and  anything  else  that  could  be  gotten  for  it.  The  first  real 
ore  shipment  made  in  1894.  Today,  it  has  paid  for  all  devel- 
opment and  improvement,  machinery,  buildings  and  roads; 
pays  in  salaries  and  wages,  and  for  supplies,  $25,000  a  month ; 
and  has  paid  up  to  March,  1897,  $350,000  in  dividends,  paying 
two  of  $25,000  each  in  January.  It  now  has  10,000  tons  of  ore, 
valued  at  $500,000,  on  its  dump;  and  experts  declare  it  has 
opened  up  and  in  sight  150,000  tons  of  ore  that  will  yield  $30 
a  ton,  and  $10,000,000  worth  of  lower  grade  that  y.'A\  run 
from  $12  to  $15  to  the  ton — a  gigantic  total  of  $14,500,000  in 
sight,  in  a  mine  that  recently  sold  for  $12.50! 

The  War  Eagle,  another  of  the  five  claims  choice  of  which 
was  offered  to  E.  S.  Topping  for  $12.50,  was  sold  in  1894  ^or 
$17,000.  It  was  resold,  a  few  months  ago,  to  a  Toronto  syn- 
dicate, for  $800,000  cash;  and  it  is  reported  that  the  new 
owners  are  negotiating  for  its  transfer  to  English  capitalists 
at  $2,475,000.  It  has  been  next  to  the  Le  Roi,  as  an  ore- 
shipper;  has  paid  for  all  development  work,  machinery  and 
buildings,  and  paid  $187,500  in  dividends;  and  now  has 
50,000  tons  of  ore  in  sight,  that  experts  say  will  run  at  least 
$25  to  the  ton,  a  total  of  $1,250,000.  Much  of  its  ore  runs  as 
iiigh  as  $80  to  the  ton.  It  took  out  ore  enough  from  its  first 
surface  tunnel  to  pay  $50,000  in  dividends. 

The  Iron  Mask  is  owned  and  worked  by  the  War  Eagle 
Company.    Its  ore  runs  up  to  $60  in  gold,  six  per  cent. — or 


<ll 


•if 


28 


120  pounds — of  copper,  and  four  ounces  of  silver,  to  the  ton. 
It  shipped  between  seven  and  eight  hundred  tons  last  year. 
The  Virginia  is  also  included  in  the  War  Eagle  group.  In 
the  fall  of  1892,  Captain  S.  L.  Burbridge,  as  the  representative 
of  a  San  Francisco  and  Michigan  company,  bonded  the  entire 
group  for  $17,500,  and  was  offered  half  the  townsite  of  Ross- 
land  for  $250.  The  wise  capitalists  he  represented  declined 
both  propositions! 

The  Josie  was  offered  for  $4,000  in  1892.  It  has  shipped 
nearly  3,000  tons  of  ore,  yielding  two  ounces  of  gold,  five 
ounces  of  silver,  and  five  per  cent. — or  100  pounds — of  copper 
to  the  ton. 

The  Jumbo  was  sold  in  1894  for  $300.  It  has  a  whole 
mountain-side  of  ore  that  runs  from  $16  to  $30  to  the  ton.  It 
began  shipping  ore  last  December,  shipped  91  tons  in  Jan- 
uary, and  has  recently  been  bonded  to  an  English  syndicate 
for  $500,000. 

The  Poorman,  another  of  the  War  Eagle  group,  shipped 
678,900  pounds,  or  339^  tons,  of  ore  last  year. 

In  April,  1895,  a  young  carpenter  named  Charles 
Dougherty,  who  had  been  prospecting  about  Rossland  for  a 
few  days,  brought  some  pieces  of  rock  to  Frank  Davey,  an 
old  Deadwood  boy,  to  be  assayed.  In  October,  1896,  he 
sold  out  his  interest  in  the  Crown  Point  mine  for  $50,000 
cash;  and  his  partner,  Volney  Williams,  cleaned  up  $100,000 
in  the  same  deal.  It  was  bought  by  a  Toronto  syndicate  at 
$350,000.  It  is  capitalized  at  $1,000,000,  and  last  year  shipped 
300,000  pounds,  or  150  tons,  of  high-grade  ore,  carrying  two 
ounces  of  gold,  twelve  ounces  of  silver,  and  seven  per  cent, 
or  140  pounds,  of  copper,  to  the  ton. 

The  Center  Star,  of  which  Oliver  Durant,  one  of  the  fathers 
of  the  camp,  is  the  manager,  promises  to  be  as  great  a  mine 
as  the  greatest  in  the  district.  It  has  six  veins  of  rich  ore. 
One— the  Center  Star  and  LeRoi  vein— is  70  feet  wide,  opened 
by  a  tunnel  1,500  feet  long,  every  foot  of  it  in  ore.    The  north 

29 


vein,  running  parallel  with  this,  is  40  feet  wide,  and  the  other 
veins  range  from  nine  inches  to  six  feet  in  width,  all  shown 
up  by  tunnels  and  crosscuts.  In  the  middle  of  the  70-foot 
vein  are  18  feet  of  solid  sulphide  ore.  Next  to  the  hanging 
wall  is  a  body  of  silicious  ore,  12  feet  wide,  running  from  $25 
to  $85  in  gold.  Another  division  of  this  vast  70-foot-wide 
vein,  extending  the  full  length  of  the  claim — 1,500  feet — is  a 
channel  24  feet  wide,  yielding  $40  in  gold,  and  20  per  cent.,  or 
400  pounds,  of  copper,  to  the  ton.  Still  another  streak  of  this 
marvelous  vein,  five  feet  wide,  and  1,500  feet  long,  runs  $76 
in  gold,  combined  with  iron.  Thousands  of  feet  of  under- 
ground work  have  been  done,  and  there  is  at  least  $2,500,000 
worth  of  ore  in  sight.  The  intention  of  the  company  is  to 
build  its  own  reduction  works.  The  Center  Star  is  still 
another  of  the  five  locations  made  in  a  single  day  by  two 
tramp  prospectors,  and  of  which  choice  was  offered  for  $12.50. 

The  Cliflf  has  shipped  about  25  car-loads,  shipping  75  tons 
last  year,  of  ore  that  gave  $35  in  gold,  five  ounces  of  silver, 
and  15  per  cent.,  or  300  pounds,  of  copper,  to  the  ton. 

The  Columbia  and  Kootenai  has  one  of  the  vastest  bodies 
of  ore  in  this  district,  and  has  recently  become  a  shipper.  It 
sent  out  230  tons  of  ore  in  January,  averaging  $50  to  the  ton. 
A  half-interest  in  the  mine  was  vainly  offered  at  $7,000  in 
1894.  The  par  value  of  its  stock  is  $100  a  share,  and  $115 
a  share  was  recently  refused  for  a  block  of  it. 

The  O.  K.  is  the  only  free-milling  gold  mine  so  far 
found  in  the  camp,  but,  besides  the  free  gold,  it  contains 
metallic  silver  and  copper.  It  has  its  own  stamp-mill  and 
concentrator,  with  a  capacity  of  25  tons  a  day,  running  con- 
stantly on  ore  that  yields  $20  to  the  ton  in  free  gold,  and 
from  $55  to  $115  in  concentrates.  An  expert  gives  this 
dazzling  description  of  the  O.  K.  ore:  "The  metals  carried 
in  this  quartz  are  native  gold,  native  silver,  native  copper, 
both  shot  and  flake,  galena,  pyrrhite,  arsenopyrite,  bornite 
or  peacock  copper  and  chalcopyrite,  with  the  alternation  of 

30 


■) 


malachite  or  green  copper  carbonate,  azurite  or  blue  copper 
carbonate,  and  black  copper  oxide,  with  here  and  there 
bunches  of  crystalized  azurite." 

The  Mayflower  shipped  lOO  tons,  and  the  Evening  Star 

27  tons,  last  year.    The  Nickel   Plate  has   begun  shipping, 

and  some  of  its  ore  runs  $275  in  gold  to  the  ton.     The  Red 

Mountain,  Homestake,  I.  X.  L.  and  R.  E.  Lee  are  all  new 

shippers;  and  it  is  expected  that  the  Delaware,  Coxey,  Giant, 

Colonna,    Monte   Cristo,   City   of   Spokane,    Great   Western, 

Commander,  Lily  May,  Red  Eagle,  Deer  Park,  Nest  Egg, 

Iron  Colt,  and  Mascot  will  be  pouring  their  golden  tide  into 

the  mills  and  smelters  early  in  this  season.     Pages  could  be 

filled  with  descriptions  of  these  mines,  and  of  the  scores  of 

others  on  which  work  is  being  pushed  with  all  the  energy  of 

eager,   earnest   owners   and   managers;  but   there   are   other 

great  districts  and  camps,  that  are  worthy  of  mention,  and 

the  next  chapter  will  tell  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  them  all. 


at 


VIL 
^THE  SLOGAN  COUNTRY.'' 


Where  Prospectors  are    Mine-Owners  and   Bonanza -Kings^  and 
Ore  Runs  from  Hundreds  to  Thousands  of  Ounces 

to  the  Ton. 


GREAT  as  Trail  and  Rossland  are,  and  greater  far 
as  they  are  to  be,  they  have  a  rival  in  the  Slocan, 
country,  that  is  pushing  them  hard  for  first  honors,  with 
less  trumpet-blowing,  less  advertising,  less  celebrity  and 
ado.  Trail  and  Rossland  have  their  mountains  of  gold 
and  copper  ore,  but  the  Slocan  has  its  mountains  of  silver 
and  lead,  large  enough  and  rich  enough  to  overrun  all  such 
comparative  standards  as  i6-to-i.  While  the  Rossland- 
Trail  ore  yields  from  i  to  lo  ounces  of  gold  to  the  ton,  the 
Slocan  ore  turns  out  from  loo  to  i,ooo — and,  in  some  cases, 
from  5,000  to  10,000 — ounces  of  silver  to  the  ton!  The 
Rossland  mines  are  generally  the  property  of  powerful  cor- 
porations, while  a  large  proportion  of  the  Slocan  mines 
belong  to  individual  owners — often  the  prospectors  who 
found  them,  and  have  successfully  and  profitably  worked 
them.  There  is  no  other  camp  or  region  in  the  world  where 
so  many  men,  who  came  in  with  a  pick,  a  blanket,  a  side  of 
bacon  and  a  pair  of  strong  arms,  as  their  total  capital,  have 
in  so  short  a  time  become  substantial  and  wealthy  mine- 
owners.  Wild,  inaccessible  and  unknown  as  Central  Af- 
rica, four  or  five  years  ago,  and  still  almost  unexplored,  it 
now  has  between  sixty  and  seventy  mines  tha',  are  shipping 
ore;    and,    according    to    the    official    report    of    Honorable 

32 


William  A.  Carlyle,  provincial  mineralogist,  it— with  Nelson 
and  Ainsworth— last  year  shipped  50,039  tons  of  ore,  that 
yielded,  by  smelter  returns.  663  ounces  of  gold,  2,960,327 
ounces  of  silver,  2,237,921  pounds  of  copper,  and  21,367,666 
pounds  of  lead,  worth  $2,745,i66!  In  January  and  February 
of  this  year,  it  shipped  9,608  tons  of  ore  and  matte,  or  nearly 
5,000  tons  a  month,  and  the  monthly  shipments  are  now 
running  from  6,000  to  7,000  tons. 

The  whole  region  is  so  new  and  so  little  known,  that  no 
two  maps  or  descriptions  exactly  agree  as  to  its  boundaries 
or  extent;  but,  as  the  enclosed  Oregon  Railway  and  Naviga- 
tion Company  map  shows,  "The  Slocan  Country,"  as  it  is 
vaguely  styled,  includes  in  a  general  way  the  vast  territory 
bounded  on  the  east  by  Kootenai  lake,  on  the  wesc  by  Gold 
mountains  or  Lower  Arrow  lake,  on  the  south  by  the  Colum- 
bia and  Kootenai  rivers,  and  on  the  north  by  a  line  from 
the  foot  of  Upper  Arrow  lake  and  Trout  lake  to  Lake  Dun- 
can.    Slocan  lake,  which  is  about  30  miles  long,  from  one 
to  two  miles  wide,  and  from  400  to  900  feet  deep,  divides  it 
near  the  middle;  and,  so  far,  exploration  and  development 
have  been  chiefly  confined  to  an  area  some  25  miles  square 
between  Kootenai  and  Slocan  lakes.    Topographically,  it  is 
one  of  the  roughest  regions  on  earth.     God  Almighty  could 
hardly   have   found  space   anywhere   between   sea-level   and 
clouds,   to  pile  up   rock   and   dirt   in   huger,    more   rugged 
masses.    There  is  scarcely  a  foot  of  level  land  in  the  whole 
country.     The   mountains   tower   from   8.000   to    10,000    feet 
high,  so  nearly  perpendicular  that   it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand how  the  snow  sticks   on  them,   from   five  to  twenty 
feet  deep,  nearly  half  the  year.     It  is  steep  climbing  for  a 
mountain    goat.     The    canyons    are    vast,    with    precipitous 
walls  of  stone,  and  their  beds  heaped  with  boulders  of  all 
shapes  and  sizes;  and  the  forests  of  cedars,  firs,  pines  and 
hemlocks  are  so  gigantic  and  so  dense  that,  in  many  places, 
it  would  seem  likely  to  puzzle  a  bird  to  fly  over  them  or  a 

33 


:i 


K 


weasel  to  creep  through  them.  One  who  sees  the  region 
wonders,  not  that  its  riches  went  so  long  undiscovered,  but 
that  they  were  ever  discovered  at  all. 

The.  history  of  the  district  goes  back  but  five  or  six  years. 
Authorities  differ  as  to  dates,  even  in  that  short  period.  In 
September,  1891,  according  to  one  set  of  chroniclers,  and 
September,  1892,  according  to  another,  Jack  Seaton  and  Eli 
Carpenter  came  by  canoe  from  the  old  Ainsworth  camp  on 
Kootenai  lake  to  where  the  town  of  Kaslo  now  stands. 
Then,  with  their  prospector  outfits  strapped  on  their  backs, 
they  footed  it  up  what  is  now  Kaslo  creek  to  its  head, 
crossed  over  the  divide  near  Bear  lake,  and  meandered  down 
the  .niddle  fork  of  the  stream  that  was  afterwards  christened 
Carpenter's  creek,  to  the  junction  of  its  three  branches, 
where  is  now  the  railroad  and  mining  town  of  Three  Forks. 
Here  they  began  prospecting,  and  speedily  located  what  is 
today  the  famous  Payne  mine.  By  this  time  they  were  out 
of  provisions;  so,  with  a  small  sack  of  partnership  ore  sam- 
ples— and  each  with  a  few  pri  ate  samples  up  his  sleeve — 
they  started  back  to  Ainsworth.  Thv.  '  cnck  lay  around  for 
several  days,  while  each  partner  secretly  hao  ul.;  own  personal 
samples  assayed.  Carpenter  got  his  report  first,  and  imme- 
diately lit  out  with  a  comrade,  by  a  roundabout  route. 
Seaton,  with  four  others — two  Hennesseys,  J.  G.  McGuigan 
and  Frank  Flint — took  the  Kaslo  route,  be;:t  the  Carpenter 
party  in,  and,  on  the  28th  of  September,  located  the  Payne 
extensions,  and  crossed  the  mountain  ai>d  staked  out  The 
Noble  Five — called  for  the  five  of  themselves.  Meanwhile, 
as  a  result  of  the  assays,  showing  hundreds  of  ounces  of 
silver  to  the  ton,  the  whole  population  of  Ainsworth  had 
strapped  its  blankets  and  frying-pans  on  its  back,  and  struck 
out  for  the  new-found  El  Dorado.  By  October  9,  some- 
thing like  so  claims  had  been  located,  among  them  the  now 
famous  Slocan  Star,  which  was  located  by  Bruce  White  and 
Joe  Sandon,  for  whom  the  city  of  Sandon  is  named.     Snow 


{ 


1 


.M 


34 


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)t 


began  to  fall  the  night  of  October  lo,  and  the  pioneers  of 
the  Kaslo-SIocan  country  shouldered  their  packs  and  fled. 

All  this,  according  to  one  lot  of  historians,  was  but  four 
years  and  a  half  ago;  and,  today,  the  whole  region  is  dotted 
with    prosperous    towns;    two    railroads    wind    through    its 
seemingly  impenetrable  fastnesses,  and  find  far  more  busi- 
ness than  they  can  do;  steamers  and  barges  plow  their  way 
to  and  fro  on  all  its  lakes  and  large  streams,  loaded  down 
to  the  guards  with  passengers  and  freight;  over  4,000  of  its 
mining  claims  have  been  located,  and  stamp-mills  and  smel- 
ters  have   risen   amid   its    rugged   desolation;     it   has   from 
10,000  to  15,000  people,  and  its  great  mines  are  shipping  out 
thousands  of  tons  of  ore  every  month,  and  have  paid  and  are 
paying  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  in  dividends.     The 
first  ore  shipped  out  cost  $100  a  ton  in  transportation  and 
smelter  charges;  but  it  yielded  552  ounces  of  silver  and  over 
1,000  pounds  of  lead  to  the  ton!     The  ore  from  most  of  the 
mines  now  is  "rawhided"  to  the  railroad  or  wagon  road  in 
the  winte'-    and  packed  on  mules  or  horses  in  the  summer. 
"Rawhidii    "  is  a  mode  of  shipment  to  be  seen  in  few  other 
mining  regions.    The  ore  is  put  in  sacks,  and  the  sacks  are 
done  up  in  a  green  ox  or  bull  hide,  and  hitched  to  a  horse  to 
be  hauled  down  a  rude  trail  on  the  snow.     Each  hide  car- 
ries from  1,500  to  2,000  pounds,  and  one  horse  will  pull  two 
hides.     Much  of  the  trail  is  so  steep  that  about  all  the  horse 
has  to  do  is  to  keep  himself  from  being  run  over  by  the 
ore-loaded  hides.    Think  of  lead  and  silver  ores,  that  will 
bear  the   expense   of   this   sort   of   handling;    then   possibly 
hauling  by  wagon  to  a  railway,  boating  down  lake  or  river, 
and  reshipping  by  rail,  1,000  miles  or  more,  to  smelters  at 
Butte,   Helena,   Omaha,   Denver,   Pueblo,   Tacoma  or   Van- 
couver; and,  after  all  charges  of  transportation   and  treat- 
ment are   paid,   return   clear   net   profits   of  from   $5,000   to 
$9,000  to  the  carload!     That  is  just  what  Slocan  ores  have 
done   ever  since  they   were  first   discovered,   and   are   now 


35 


i  i 


I 


doing  every  day.     No  ore  that  yields  less  than  50  ounces  of . 
silver  to  the  ton  can  be  handled  under  existing  conditions. 

Provincial  Mineralogist  William  A.  Carlyle,  in  his  offi- 
cial report  for  1896  to  Honorable  James  Baker,  minister  of 
mines,  says  of  the  Slocan:  "The  richness  of  the  ores  may  be 
seen  from  the  lead  and  silver  values,  as  per  smelter  Returns 
from  a  few  of  the  mines,  as:  Slocan  Star,  80  to  95  ounces 
of  silver  and  70  to  75  per  cent,  lead,  to  the  ton;  Reco,  83  to 
730  ounces  of  silver,  and  19  to  67  per  cent,  lead;  Goodenough, 
167  to  507  ounces  of  silver,  and  15  to  67  per  cent,  lead;  Noble 
Five,  62  to  543  ounces  of  silver,  and  from  30  to  75  per  cent, 
lead;  Last  Chance,  135  to  238  ounces  of  silver,  and  35  to  78 
per  cent,  lead;  Wonderful,  113  to  133  ounces  of  silver,  and 
70  to  76  per  cent,  lead;  Ruth,  40  to  125  ounces  of  silver,  and 
15  to  7^  per  cent,  lead;  Monitor,  142  to  367  ounces  of  silver, 
32  to  57  per  cent,  lead,  and  $13  in  gold;  Wellington,  125  to 
328  ounces  of  silver,  and  10  to  55  per  cent,  lead;  Whitewater, 
72  to  326  ounces  of  silver,  and  10  to  65  per  cent,  lead;  Dar- 
danelles, T49  to  470  ounces  of  silver,  and  15  to  55  per  cent, 
lead;  Enterprise,  155  to  180  ounces  of  silver,  and  18  to  30 
per  cent,  lead;  Two  Friends,  248  to  380  ounces  of  silver,  and 
38  to  52  per  cent.  lead.  The  other  Slocan  mines  have  ore 
of  the  same  character  and  high  e:rade.  The  lowest  values 
in  the  above  indicate  the  lowest  smelter  returns  on  ore  that 
is  classed  as  'carbonates.'  The  average  value  of  all  the  ore 
sold  has  been  given  above." 

Remember,  that  is  the  official  statement  of  the  highest 
government  expert  and  authority;  and  think  of  mountains 
8,000  to  10,000  feet  high,  ribbed  from  glacier-crowned  sum- 
mit to  volcanic  heart  with  ore  that  yields,  in  carload  lots, 
"by  smelter  returns,"  730  ounces  of  silver,  and  67  per  cent., 
or  1,340  pounds,  of  lead,  to  the  ton!  At  3  cents  a  pound,  the 
lead  would  bring  $40.20  to  the  ton;  more  than  enough  to  pay 
all  shipping  and  smelting  charges,  and  leave  the  730  ounces 

36 


wsaa^ 


— or  45  pounds  and  lo  ounces — of  pure  silver  clear  for  every 
ton!     This  is  the  Slocan  country! 

Near  the  center  of  the  region,  straggling  up  and  down  a 
half-dozen  ragged  gulches  that  spraddle  out  like  the  legs  of  a 
huge  spider,  is  the  city  of  Sandon.     In  June,  1895,  it  con- 
sisted of  four  or  five  cabins,  all  of  which  are  still  standing. 
The  place,  with  its  various  suburban  attachments,  now  has 
from  1,500  to  2,500  people,  two  railroads,  electric  lights,  tele- 
graph and  telephones,  a  live  newspaper,  a  half  dozen  mills 
and  concentrators,  branches  of  the  Bank  of  British  Colum- 
bia and   of   British     North    America,     good    schools     and 
churches,  and  eight  or  ten  hotels,  one  of  which  is  as  well 
furnished  and  well  kept  as  any  house  in  Louisville,  Memphis 
or  New  Orleans.     The  town  is  a  miners'  ideal.     Every  other 
man  one  meets  is  the  discoverer,  owner  or  worker  of  a  mine. 
There  are  few  speculators   or  promoters.     Real   miners   go 
here,  and  nearly  every  man  of  them  has  made  and  is  making 
money.    The  place  is  as  orderly  as  Mount  Holyoke,  Massa- 
chusetts, or  a  mission  station  in  New  Jersey.     All  the  prin- 
cipal mines  lie  near  it  and  around  it.     A  narrow-gauge  rail- 
road 30  miles  long  connects  it  with  Kaslo  on  Kootenai  lake, 
and  two  lines  of  steamers   run   from  there  to  a  connection 
near  Nelson  with  the  trains  of  the  Spokane  Falls  and  North- 
ern railway.     A  branch  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  gives  another 
outlet,  with  two  changes  from  rail  to  steamer,  to  Revelstoke 
on  the  main  line.     The  first  railroad  and  the  first  machinery 
reached  the  town  and  its  mines  in   1895.     The  vast  forests 
furnish  timber  for  all  purposes,  and  water  tumbles  and  foams 
and  dances  in  every  gulch 

The  shipping  mines  include  the  Alamo,  American  Boy, 
Cumberland,  Dardanelles,  Grey  Hoyle,  Idler,  Kootenay-Co- 
lumbia,  Minnesota,  Monitor.  Noble  Five.  Rambler  Consoli- 
dated, Reco,  Slocan  Star,  Sunshine,  Washington,  Wonder- 
ful, Payne,  Slocan  Boy,  Ruth,  Ruby  Silver,  Surprise,  White- 
water, Wellington,  Jackson.  Silver  Bell,  Black  Fox,  London, 

37 


Ill 


Montezuma,  Mountain  Chief,  Irene,  Lucky  Jim,  Iron  Hand, 
London  Hill,  Charleston,  Deadnian,  Ibex,  Ivanhoe,  Gibson, 
Mountain  Chief,  Freddie  Lee,  Chambers  Group,  Reid  and 
Robinson,  Alpha,  Bird-Holder,  Enterprise,  Exchange 
Group,  Fisher  Maiden,  Galena  Farm,  B.  and  A.,  Briggs' 
Group,  Two  Friends,  Silver  Crown,  Idler,  Bon-Ton,  Big 
Bertha,  Kokanea,  Trade  Dollar,  Texas,  Fourth  of  July,  Bell, 
Bullion,  Blue  Bell,  Sky-Line,  Sunset,  Highlander,  California, 
Highland,  Yakima,  Idaho,  Ivanhoe,  Best,  Northern  Belle, 
Blue  Bird,  R.  E.  Lee,  Antoine,  Paddy's  Fraction,  Great 
Western,  Miner  Boy,  Jo-Jo,  Goodenough  and  Black  Dia- 
mond. Of  these,  a  dozen  or  more  are  dividend-payers,  and 
twenty  or  thirty  others  are  paying  all  expenses  and  putting 
money  in  the  pockets  of  their  owners. 

Just  south  of  Sandon  is  the  great  Slocan  Star  mine,  which 
has  paid  for  all  development  work,  a  mill  with  a  capacity 
of  150  tons  a  day,  all  buildings  and  machinery,  and  $350,000 
in  dividends.  Its  ore  runs  an  average  of  95  ounces  of  silver, 
and  75  per  cent.,  or  1,500  pounds,  of  lead  to  the  ton.  It 
employs  100  men,  and  its  pay-roll  amounts  to  $12,000  a 
month. 

The  Payne  group  lies  about  three  miles  northwest  of  San- 
don. The  history  of  its  location  by  Seaton  and  Carpenter 
has  been  given.  They  sold  a  half-interest  in  it  to  S.  S. 
Bailey  for  $500.  In  October,  1896,  Bailey  sold  out  to  A.  W. 
McCune,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  W.  L.  Hoge,  of  Anaconda, 
Montana,  a  partner  of  Marcus  Daly,  for  $150,000  cash.  Since 
then  the  mine  has  yielded,  without  machinery,  nearly  $500,- 
000,  and  paid  something  like  $300,000  in  profits,  paying  $125,- 
000  in  February  alone.  It  ships  about  50  tons  a  day  of  ore 
that  nets  $100  to  the  ton.  and  is  said  by  experts  to  have 
$5,000,000  in  sight. 

38 


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The  Reco,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  northeast  of  Sandon, 
has  paid  $287,000  in  dividends,  with  comparatively  few  ship- 
ments. Its  ore  is  almost  incredibly  rich.  One  shipment  of 
391  sacks,  weighing  43,178  pounds,  was  sent  to  the  Omaha 
&  Grant  smelter,  at  Omaha.  It  assayed  730  ounces  of  silver, 
and  67  per  cent,  lead  to  the  ton,  and  yielded  95  per  cent,  of 
the  assay;  a  total  of  14,971.97  ounces  of  silver,  and  26,036 
pounds  of  lead.  The  silve  .old  for  6o3/^  cents  an  ounce,  or 
$9.03933;  and  the  lead  brou^  ^023^  a  hundred-weight,  or 
$781.59,  This  gave  a  total  of  J>t^  26.92.  The  duties  amounted 
to  $220.72,  and  freight  and  smelting  to  $636.97,  making  the 
total  charges  $857.69,  and  leaving  as  the  net  returns  for  the 
carload  $8,969.23.  Another  shipment  of  44,880  pounds  to  the 
Puget  Sound  Reduction  Company  yielded  $8,665.65  net  re- 
turns; and  still  another  of  44,850  pounds  returned  $8,404.78 
net. 

A  recent  shipment  of  42  tons  of  ore  from  the  Good- 
enough  mine,  which  adjoins  the  Reco,  yielded  at  the  Kaslo 
smelter  524.8  ounces  of  silver,  and  70.5  per  cent,  or  1,500 
pounds,  of  lead,  to  the  ton,  and  netted  its  owners  nearly 
$14,000. 

The  Noble  Five  lies  just  west  of  the  Reco.  Before  its 
organization  as  a  company,  it  had  shipped  out  ore,  at  a  cost 
of  $90  a  ton  for  transportation  and  smelting,  that  yielded  a 
total  of  $225,000.  Its  mill  and  plant  at  Cody,  a  mile  and  a 
half  from  Sandon,  cost  $75,000,  and  are  unsurpassed  in  Brit- 
ish America.  The  riill  has  a  capacity  of  120  tons  a  day,  and 
the  ore  is  brought  down  the  mountain-side,  6,100  feet,  by  a 
Finlayson  wire  tramway,  that  delivers  it  automatically.  The 
clean  ore,  in  carload  lots,  averages  from  100  to  556  ounces  of 
silver  to  the  ton  at  the  smelter,  and  the  mine  is  now  shipping 
about  a  carload  a  day.     A  shipment  from  the  Deadman  mine, 

40 


T 


one  of  the  Noble  Five  group,  to  the  United  Smelting  and 
Refining  Company,  at  Smelter,  Montana,  yielded  304.8  ounces 
of  silver,  and  19.5  per  cent.,  or  390  pounds,  of  lead,  to  the  ton, 
with  a  cash  value  of  $200.71. 

To  be  wonderful  in  this  region  of  wonders,  a  mine  must  be 
a  wonder,  indeed;  and  that  is  just  what  the  Wonderful  mine 
is.  It  is,  so  far  as  known,  the  only  silver-lead  placer  mine 
in  the  world — the  only  one  where  silver  and  galena  are 
washed  out  of  the  ground.  The  owners  of  the  Wonderful 
cleaned  up  over  $25,000  in  a  few  weeks  by  hydraulic  mining, 
and  the  mine  is  now  a  promising  shipper. 

But  this  booklet  could  be  filled  twice  over  with  such  men- 
tions of  mines  in  the  Slocan  that  have  paid  from  the  grass- 
roots— if  there  were  any  grass; — have  paid  for  all  their  own 
development,  buildings,  machinery  and  improvements,  and 
paid,  besides,  handsome  dividends  to  their  companies,  or 
profits  to  their  owners.  A  brief  roll-call  of  a  few  prominent 
names  must  suffice.  The  Idaho,  by  smelter  returns,  has 
yielded  $236,000,  and  is  a  dividend-payer;  the  Alamo  has  pro- 
duced $186,000,  and  pays  dividends;  the  Cumberland  has 
produced  $12,000,  and  the  Minnesota  Silver  $42,000 — a  total 
of  $476,000  within  a  few  months,  by  this  group,  all  belong- 
ing to  one  company.  The  Last  Chance  has  paid  for  itself, 
and  paid  a  $20,000  dividend  by  the  shipment  of  26  carloads 
of  ore.  The  Rambler-Caribou  has  two  huge  veins,  one  gold, 
copper  and  silver,  and  the  other  silver  and  galena;  and  has 
paid  all  expenses,  and  $40,000  in  dividends.  The  Darda- 
nelles has  been  shipping  ore  that  yielded  at  the  smelter  470.2 
ounces  of  silver  and  56  per  cent.  lead.  The  Whitewater, 
from  development  work  alone,  has  paid  for  itself  and  all 
improvements,  and  $36,000  in  dividends  last  year.  The  R.  E. 
Lee  has  made  shipments  that  ran  130  ounces  of  silver  and 
75  per  cent,  lead  to  the  ton.  The  Washington  has  built  its 
own  mill,  with  a  capacity  of  50  tons  a  day,  and  has  three 

41 


sMj- 


miles  of  well-constructed  road  to  connect  it  with  the  Kaslo 
and  Slocan  railway  at  McGuigan's  Siding.  The  Enterprise 
was-  bonded  a  little  over  a  year  ago  for  $25,0'  to,  id  it  was 
recently  sold  to  an  English  syndicate  for  $325,000.  The 
average  yield  of  400  tons  shipped  by  the  Wellington  was  173 
ounces  of  silver  and  600  pounds  of  lead  to  the  ton.  It 
shipped  every  two  weeks  last  year.  The  Two  Friends  has 
had  to  pay  $15  a  ton  to  get  its  ore  "packed"  eight  miles  to 
Slocan  City.  From  there  it  goes  by  boat  up  Slocan  lake  to 
Roseberry  or  Bonanza,  and  is  loaded  on  the  Canadian  Pacific 
branch,  to  be  taken  to  Naskusp,  at  the  foot  of  Upper  Arrow 
lake.  Here  it  is  again  transferred  to  a  boat,  and  carried  up 
to  Arrowhead,  where  it  goes  on  board  the  cars  of  another 
branch  railroad,  and  is  borne  on  to  Revelstoke,  on  the  main 
line.  Thence  it  is  shipped  1,500  to  2,500  miles  to  the  smelter. 
Think  of  the  richness  of  ore  that  will  stand  all  this  expense, 
and  then  return  $150  to  $175  a  ton,  in  net  profits,  to  its  own- 
ers! The  Two  Friends  made  its  first  shipment  last  Novem- 
ber. In  March  of  this  year  it  paid  a  dividend  of  $20,000. 
The  Chapleau,  in  the  same  region,  has  shipped  ore  that 
yielded  $106  in  gold,  and  159  ounces  of  silver,  to  the  ton;  and 
a  Howard  Fraction  shipment  to  the  Kaslo  smelter  gave  $26 
in  gold  and  206  ounces  of  silver  to  the  ton. 

There  are  over  4,000  locations  in  the  district,  and  develop- 
ment work  is  being  pushed  on  scores  of  claims;  but  the  whole 
country  is  new,  and  virtually  unknown.  It  has  only  been  a 
few  months  at  most,  since  attention  was  first  drawn  to  it, 
and  the  first  trail  broken  through  its  vast  solitudes.  There 
are  thousands  of  square  miles,  just  as  rich  in  promise  as  any 
regions  now  opened  up,  that  have  never  been  trodden  by  a 
white  man's  foot,  have  never  been  explored,  and  never  heard 
the  sound  of  a  prospector's  pick  or  hammer.  When  the 
snow  melts  oflf  in  June  of  this  year, — 1897, — there  will  be  a 

42 


^ 


( 


T 


greater  rush  than  Kootenai  or  British  Cokimbia  has  ever 
seen.  From  the  international  boundary-line  to  the  head  of 
Arrow,  Trout  and  Duncan  lakes,  and  from  the  sources  of 
the  Columbia  and  Kootenai  rivers  to  Okanogan  and  Osoyoos 
lakes,  the  whole  country  seems  mineralized.  Gold  and  cop- 
per, gold-silver-copper,  silver-copper,  silver-lead  and  gold- 
silver-lead  ores  are  apparently  to  be  found  everywhere. 
Away  over  in  East  Kootenai  about  Fort  Steele,  millions  of 
dollars  have  been  washed  out  of  the  gravel  beds,  and 
numerous  ledges  of  royal  ore  have  recently  been  found;  and, 
far  to  the  west,  in  the  McKinney  district,  the  Cariboo  mine 
has  already  paid  $160,000  in  dividends,  and  in  the  Boundary 
district  many  great  bodies  of  ore  have  been  discovered,  that 
only  await  better  transportation  facilities  to  become  famous 
bonanzas.  Far  north  on  Trout  lake,  some  astonishingly  rich 
prospects  have  lately  been  struck;  while  down  in  the  Fern 
mine,  ten  miles  below  Nelson,  a  strike  was  made  in  March 
of  ore  that  runs  12  ounces  of  gold  to  the  ton,  and  metallic 
tin  has  just  been  discovered  in  the  same  region,  though 
whether  or  not  in  workable  quantities  is  as  yet  unknown. 
Around  Ainsworth  and  Hendryx,  on  Kootenai  lake,  are 
mines  that  have  yielded  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars, 
and  new  and  valuable  discoveries  have  recently  been  made. 
A  few  weeks  ago,  in  digging  a  cellar  at  Nakusp,  on  Upper 
Arrow  lake,  a  lot  of  gold  nuggets  were  thrown  out,  and  in 
three  hours  every  vacant  spot  about  the  town  was  staked  oflf 
in  mineral  locations;  and,  within  a  week,  the  same  thing 
happened  at  Salmo,  on  the  Spokane  Falls  and  Northern 
railroad,  over  100  miles  southeast  of  Nakusp,  one  of  the 
nuggets  in  the  last  case  weighing  about  $10.  Ore  that  runs 
3,500  ounces  of  silver  to  the  ton  has  just  been  struck  in  the 
Lardo-Duncan  region,  and  the  claims  promptly  bonded  for 
$50,000.     Gersdorffite  and  platinum  have  recently  been  found 

43 


in  two  or  three  places.  The  Kootenai  Country  is  the  Pros- 
pectors' and  Miners'  Promised  Land  todayl  It  is  all  open, 
the  laws  are  liberal,  and  every  honest  new-comer  is  welcome.' 
A  few  paragraphs,  as  to  the  mining  laws,  the  climate, 
wages  and  cost  of  living,  with  mentions  of  the  towns,  and 
some  suggestions  as  to  how  best  to  reach  the  new  Land  of 
Gold  and  Silver,  will  form  the  next  brief  chapter. 


Vffl. 
HOW  TO  ''GET  THERE.'' 


A  Grand  Trip  to  the  New  Bonan^aland— The  Towns,  Mining 
Laws,  Climate,  Wages,  and  Costs  of  Living. 


|\]0  REGION  of  America,  or  of  the  world,  today,  offers 
I  >l     more   opportunities    for   fortune,    than   The    Kootenai 
Country.     Thousands  of  fortunes  are  there  just  waiting  to 
be  found  or  made.     Many  fortunes  were  made  there  last  year, 
and  many  more  will  be  made  this  year.     With  energy   enter- 
prise, and  intelligent  industry,  no  man   need  stay  poor  in 
that  vast  storehouse  of  riches,  free  to  every  finder  and  taker 
How  to  "get  there,"  is  a  natural  question  with  every  one— 
whether  his  front  name  is  "Eli,"  or  not-who  contemplates 
trymg  his  luck  in  the  new-found  land  of  golden  hope  and 
promise;  how  to  get  there  most  directly,  speedily,  cheaply 
and  pleasantly.    The  question  is  easily  answered.     Here  is  a 
condensed   guidebook:  Any   railway  to   Denver,    Salt    Lake 
or    Ogden.    Then,    the    Oregon     Short    Line    to     Hunt- 
ington.    From  there,  or  from  Portland,  the  Oregon  Railway 

44 


/ 


and  Navigation  Company's  line  to  Spokane.  From  Spo- 
kane, the  Spokane  Falls  and  Northern  railway  to  North- 
port,  wh^re  a  17-mile  branch  leads  to  Rossland,  while  the 
main  line  continues  to  Nelson  on  Kootenai  river.  Steamers 
run  from  that  point  up  Kootenai  lake  to  Kaslo,  and  the 
Kaslo  and  Slocan  narrow-gauge  railway,  30  miles  long,  leads 
on  to  Sandon  in  "The  Heart  of  the  Slocan"— and  "there  you 
are."  Straight  through— only  one  change  of  cars  from 
Denver  or  Portland  to  Kootenai. 

To  go  more  into  details,  any  one  of  a  half-dozen  great 
east-and-west  railway  lines  will  bring  the  fortune-seeker  or 
sight-seer  from  the  East  or  South  to  Denver,  Salt  Lake  or 
Ogden.  All  the  railroads  from  the  mining  regions  of  Colo- 
rado, New  Mexico,  Arizona.  Utah  and  Nevada  lead  to  the 
same  radiating-points  of  travel.  From  Denver,  as  the  map 
shows,  there  are  two  lines,  and  from  Salt  Lake  or  Ogden  one. 
making  direct  connections,  without  change  of  cars,  with  the 
Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  Company's  line  at  Hunting- 
ton; and  it  is  but  eighteen  hours'  run  from  there,  through  a 
country  rich  in  agricultural,  pastoral  and  mineral  resources, 
to  Spokane,  the  beautiful  and  busy  metropolis  of  Eastern 
Washington,  and  the  railroad,  commercial  and  financial  cen- 
ter of  the  three  great  mining-fields  of  the  Kootenai,  Baker 
City  and  CiEUr  d'Alenes.  From  Portland  to  Spokane,  the  Ore- 
gon Railway  and  Navigation  Company's  Columbia  River  Line 
is  the  only  direct  and  scenic  route.  Regardless  of  any  possi- 
bilities of  bonanza-kingship  at  the  end  of  it,  the  tr.^  is  a 
glorious  and  memorable  one  The  trains  are  superb,  the 
track  smooth  and  solid,  and  the  scenery  unsurpassed — if  not 
unequaled— in  the  same  distance,  on  any  railway  in  the 
United  States.  It  combines  all  that  is  sublime  and  enchant- 
ing, picturesque  and  beautiful,  in  mountain  and  stream,  crag, 
cataract  and  cascade.  For  two  hundred  miles,  on  one  side 
the  greatest  "river  that  empties  into  the  Pacific  ocean  in 
North  or  South  America,  and  on  the  other  the  giant  peaks 

45 


k 


of  the  Cascade  Range,  that  numbers  Mount  Hood,  Mount 
Adams  and  Mount  St.  Helens  among  its  mighty  jewels. 
Precipices  towering  above  the  clouds  on  one  hand,  and  huge 
falls  or  rapids  of  blue-green  water  roaring  and  foaming 
on  the  other.  Multnomah  Falls,  8io  feet  high,  has  been 
painted  and  penciled  and  sung  throughout  the  world,  but  it 
is  only  one  of  more  than  twenty  cataracts  that  tumble,  flash 
ing  and  resplendently  iridescent,  from  the  mountain-tops 
along  the  route.  A  recent  writer  in  The  Scientific  American 
pays  this  tribute  to  the  glories  of  scene  along  the  line: 
"Majestic  and  impressive  as  the  Alps  may  be,  they  do  not 
lift  their  heads  any  more  grandly  than  the  summits  of  the 
Rockies,  the  Cascades  or  the  Sierras:  and  nowhere  are  they 
clad  with  such  a  wealth  of  noble  verdure  as  is  spread  about 
the  base  of  our  western  mountains.  The  Rhine  may  seem 
to  sweep  in  stately  fashion  beneath  beetling  cliffs  and  hills 
that  soar  loftily  above  its  waters,  but  in  the  presence  of 
the  awe-inspiring  heights  and  depths  and  changing  shadows 
of  the  gorge  of  the  Columbia  river,  the  Rhine  becomes  an 
insignificant  memory,  and  the  mind's  sense  of  dimension  is 
battled  in  the  effort  to  take  in  this  infinitely  greater,  nobler 
and  more  majestically  beautiful  Rhine  of  our  native  land." 
And  every  word  is  true. 

Spokane  is  a  typical  boom  city.  In  i88g,  it  had  200  popu- 
lation; in  1896,  about  35,000.  In  1880,  its  total  assessed  val- 
uation was  $1,800;  in  1896,  it  had  climbed  to  $15,262,274.  In 
1880,  its  postof?ice  receipts  were  $60.  and  in  1896  they  soared 
to  $80,595.  In  1880,  it  had'  not  a  mile  of  graded  street,  no 
churches,  no  factories,  no  railroads;  and  now,  it  has  49  miles 
of  paved  and  graded  streets,  58  churches,  96  manufactories, 
and  5  railroads.  In  1880,  it  had  one  bank  and  one  public- 
school  building:  now  it  has  7  banks  and  16  free-school 
edifices.  It  has  43  miles  of  electric  street  railway,  and  128 
miles  of  electric  light  wires.  In  the  very  center  of  the  city, 
the  Falls  of  the  Spokane  river,  a  mile  of  prodigious  cataracts 


4.6 


' 


and  whirling  rapids,  offer  water-power  enough     to   run  all 
the  machinery  of  an  empire.     St.  Anthony's  Falls,  at  Mmne- 
apolis,   have   an  extreme   possibility   of  90,000  horse-power. 
The    Falls   of  Spokane   have   374,ooo   possible   horse-power, 
or  more  than  four  times   as  much.     Spokane  last  year,  as 
one  item  of  her  trade,   shipped  537,ooo  barrels  of   flour  to 
China  and  Japan.     For  six  or  seven  years  after  the  comple- 
tion of  the  Northern  Pacific  road  in  1883,  the  city  had  a  tre- 
mendous boom.     In   1890  alone,   $5,100,000   went   mto   new 
buildings,   and  whole  blocks   of  skyscrapers  went   up,  that 
would  not  have   been  pigmies   in   Chicago   or   New   York. 
Then  came  the  closing  of  the  India  mints  agamst  silver  in 
1891,  and  the  panic  and  collapse  of  1892  and  1893— and  Spo- 
kane sufifered.     Entire  rows  of  buildings  were  empty,  every- 
thing vvas  for  sale,  and  nobody  wanted  to  buy.    The  outlook 
was  blue  to  blackness,  when  the  Kootenai  mining  discoveries 
were  made,  and  the  rush  in  that  direction  began.     Spokane 
became    headquarters.     Speculators,    boomers,    grub-stakers 
and  promoters,  outfitters  and  supply-furnishers  swarmed  in: 
the  empty  buildings  were  once  more  filled  and  new  ones 
began  to  go  up.     The  hotels  have  overflowed,  brokers'  and 
assayers'    offices    have    multiplied.        Every    man    carries    a 
pocketful  of  rocks,  and  has  a  great  mine  to  sell  or  to  stock— 
and  Spokane  is  a-boom  again! 

At  a  handsome  station  in  sight  of  the  glorious  falls,  the 
journeyer  to  the  Kootenai  gold-and-silver  i'<^ds  takes  a 
Spokane  Falls  and  Northern  railway  train,  equipped  with 
every  improved  appliance  for  safety  and  comfort.  A  spin 
of  133  miles  through  a  region  of  grand  forests,  rich  mines 
and  fertile  valleys,— including  the  far-famed  valley  of  the 
Colville,— and  Northport  is  reached.  It  is  a  town  of  about 
1,000  people,  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Columbia  river,  four 
miles  south  of  the  international  boundary  line.  Here  is  the 
United    States    custom-house,    which,    from    June,    189S,    to 

47 


November,  1896,  collected  $125,806  of  duties  on  62,456,528 
pounds  of  Kootenai  ores,  thai  yielded  48,296  ounces  of  gold, 
1,329,459  ounces  of  silver,  888,238  pounds  of  copper,  and 
10,353,406  pounds  of  lead,  valued  at  $2,i8?.6o7;  besides  lead 
bullion,  worth  $77,650.  From.  Northport,  a  branch  railroad, 
17  miles  long,  goes  to  Rossland.  the  cars  being  ferried 
across  the  Columbia  river  on  a  vvire-pnd-gravitation  barge, 
which  is  itself  one  of  the  curios  of  the  trip.  Northport  is  as 
crowded  as  a  beehive  or  an  anthill.  The  station  platform, 
400  feet  long  and  30  feet  wide,  is  jammed  whenever  a  train 
arrives,  and  it  is  not  unusual  to  see  from  a  half-mile  to  a  mile 
of  freight-cars  in  the  yard.  Baggage  from  the  British  side 
is  iuLjpected  here. 

Four  miles  north  of  Northport,  the  boundary-line  between 
the  United  States  and  the  Columbian  Dominions  ot  Her 
Britannic  Majesty  is  crossed  at  Fort  Sheppard  or  Waneta, 
and  baggage  is  overhauled  by  a  British  customs  official.  The 
road  passes  through  a  half-dozen  or  more  little  towns,  all 
too  new  to  be  painted;  and,  about  60  miles  from  Northport, 
Nelson  is  reached.  It  is  on  Kootenai  river,  known  here  as 
the  West  Arm  of  Kootenai  lake.  The  town  is  surrounded 
by  famous  mines.  The  Hall  Mining  Company,  of  London, 
with  a  capitalization  of  £300,000,  or  $1,500,000,  owns  18 
claims,  among  them  being  the  celebrated  Silver  King,  which, 
up  to  the  last  of  December,  1896,  had  produced  31,220  tons  of 
ore,  that  yielded  803.391  ounces  of  silver,  and  2,583,840 
pounds  of  copper.  Its  smelter  is  one  of  the  most  extensive 
and  complete  in  all  the  American  Northwest.  The  Poor- 
man  mine,  which  has  produced  over  $100,000  in  free  gold, 
is  near  here.  Nelson  has  about  2.000  population,  government 
offices,  courthouse,  two  newspapers,  churches,  schools,  and 
all  modern  conveniences.  Over  100  houses  were  built  last 
year,  and  there  is  not  an  unoccupied  one  in  the  town.  Dur- 
ing the  month  of  February,  $119,138  worth  of  imported  goods 
passed  through  the   Nelson  custom-house,   and  $566,620  of 


48 


cxports-the  last,  of  course,  nearly  all  ore;  which  is  at  the 
rate  of  $6,799,440  a  year  through  this  place  alone.     Nelson 
is  the  northern  terminus  of  the  Spokane  Falls  and  Northern 
railway,   and   connection   is   made   at   Five   Mile   Point,   just 
above  the  town,  with  two  lines  of  steamers  for  Balfour,  Pilot 
Bay,  Ainsworth,  Kaslo  and  all  points  on  Kootenai  lake.      ^^ 
The  trip  up  the  lake  is  "a  thing  of  beauty  and  a  joy  for 
a  good  while,  even  to  one  who  has  seen  the  world.     The 
steamers  are  as  comfortable  in  their  appointments  as  those 
that  ply  on  eastern  lakes  and  rivers.     Kootenai  lake  is  one 
of  the  most  picturesque  and  beautiful  bodies  of  water  on  the 
globe.     It  is  1,780  feet  above  the  l.vel  of  the  sea.   100  miles 
long,  1,500  feet  deep;  clear  as  "tho  icicle  that  hangs,  curdled 
from'  purest    snow,    on    Dian's   temple";  and    walled    in   by 
majestic  mountains,  that  rise  almost  perpendicularly  from  the 
water's    edge,    robed    in    snow    and    crowned    with    eternal 
glaciers.     Under   existing   schedules,   part   of  the   trip    is   at 
night,  and  each  steamer  carries,  as  an  item  of  its  equipment, 
a  powerful  searchlight,  like  those  in  use  on  what  arc  known 
as  United   States  war-vessels.     If  the   voyager   is   especially 
good  and  well-behaved,  some  such  gigantic  official  as   six- 
foot-and-a-half-high    Captain    Hayward.    of     the     "Interna- 
tional." may  give  him  one  of  the  memorable  treats  of  his  life 
by  inviting  him  up  into  the  pilot-house,  and  "turning  on  the 
light."     It  illuminates  the  lake  and  its  mountainous  shores, 
for  miles  in  every  direction.     It  lights  up,  with  a  dazzle  of 
radiance,  wild  headlands  and  promontories,  lonely  mining- 
camps  perched  far  up  on  the  snowy  mountain-sides,  quaint 
little  fishing  villages,  hunters'  and  prospectors'  huts,  and  a 
hundred    other   points    and    objects    of    interest.     Now    and 
then,  a  blaze  of  splendor  is  thrown  far  up  on  the  glacier- 
capped  summits  of  the  vast  peaks,  that  rise  like  walls  about 
the  lake;  and,  as  the  glory  of  light  glints  and  flashes,  thou- 
sands of  feet  above  and  miles  away,  on  the  huge  crags  and 
domes  and  pinnacles  of  ice,  that  have  stood  there,  unthawed 

4«) 


T 

1 


and  prismatically  lustrous,  ever  since  the  Flood,  the  effect 
is  weirdly  and  magnificently  sublime.  Leaving  out  of  the 
question  all  consideration  of  mines  and  mining,  quartz,  placer, 
porphyry  and  pyrites,  shafts,  drills,  tunnels,  stopes  and 
winzes,  this  lake  and  its  shores  will  some  day  be  an  ideal 
of  American  summer  resorts,  combining  all  that  is  glorious 
in  S'.enery  and  delightful  in  climate,  with  no  flies  or  mos- 
quitoes, waters  alive  with  fish,  and  a  blanket  to  sleep  under 
every  night  in  dog-days. 

At  Pilot  Bay,  on  the  east  side/  of  the  lake,  is  a  $500,000 
smelting-plant,  with  a  capacity  of  200  tons  a  day.  Just  above 
on  the  west  shore,  is  Ainsworth,  with  a  backing  of  such 
mines  as  Number  One,  Skyline,  Tariff,  Mile  Point,  High- 
lander, Dellie,  Jef?  Davis,  Little  Phil,  Black  Diamond  and 
Canadian  Pacific.  A  body  of  ore  has  recently  been  struck 
in  the  Dellie,  that  runs  212  ouncf:s  of  silver  to  the  ton. 

About  50  miles  above  Nelion,  the  whistle  sounds  for 
Kaslo,  a  beautiful  little  city  o't  1,500  enterprising  people,  at 
the  mouth  of  Kaslo  creek  on  the  west  side  of  Kootenai  lake, 
hemmed  in  by  mountains  of  mineral  and  magnificent  forests 
of  timber.  It  has  a  sampling-mill,  with  all  the  latest 
improvements  in  methods  and  machinery,  and  with  a  capacity 
of  250  tons  a  day.  The  streets  are  regularly  laid  out,  and 
there  are  many  good  buildings,  a  dozen  or  more  hotels,  two 
banks,  churches,  schools,  and  an  excellent  weekly  paper 
chuck-full  of  local  pride  and  boom.  Steamers  run  to  all 
points  up  and  down  the  lake.  Here  is  the  starting-place  ot 
the  Kaslo  and  Slocan  railway,  a  narrow-gauge  engineering 
miracle,  extending  or  winding  and  climbing  30  miles  to 
cover  the  air-line  15  or  so  to  Sandon,  and  furnishing  an  outlet 
— always  gorged — for  the  great  mines  of  the  Heart  of  Slocan. 

New  Denver  and  Slocan  City,  on  Slocan  lake,  have 
about  1,000  people  apiece,  and  each  expects  speedily  tc 
become  a  great  mining  metropolis.  Silverton  on  the  samt 
lake  has  near  it  some  of  the  best  mines,  and  many  of  the 

50 


i 


I 


most  promising  prospects,  in  the  district.    All  these  camps 
and  towns  have  sprung  up  like  mushr.      ns,  as  it  were,  in  a 

night. 

The  one  thing  that  most  amazes  a  man  accustomed 
to  the  wild  ways  of  booming  mining-camps  on  the  United 
States  side  of  the  line,  is  the  absolute  orderliness  that  pre- 
vails everywhere.  The  most  rushing  camp  in  all  the  Koote- 
nai is  as  quiet  and  well-behaved  as  a  New  England  village. 
There  are  no  bars,  saloons  or  drinking-places  anywhere 
except  in  hotels,  and  a  drunken  man  is  rarely  seen.  There 
are  no  gambling-hells,  and  there  has  never  been  a  serious 
affray  in  the  region.  It  is  a  land  of  law  and  order,  peace, 
prosperity  and  boundless  possibility. 

The  climate  is  not  severe  in  winter,  and  is  perfection  in 
summer.  Kootenai  lake  never  freezes  and  boats  run  all  the 
year;  but  the  snow  begins  to  fall  in  October,  and  it  lies 
unthawed  till  late  in  May  or  early  June.  No  real  prospecting 
can  be  done  until  it  is  gone.  Timber  and  water  abound, 
and  the  whole  region  is  as  healthful  as  any  on  earth. 

Common  laborers  get  $2  a  day;  miners  from  $3  to  $3-50, 
engineers  and  blacksmiths,  from  $3.50  to  $4.  Prices  of  living 
are  not  very  different  from  those  in  Colorado,  Oregon  or 
Washington.  Hotels  and  boarding-houses,  of  every  grade 
and  quality,  abound,  as  the  transient  population  is  nearly,  if 
not  quite,  as  large  as  the  resident  element. 

Any  and  every  person  18  years  of  age  may  become  a 
free  miner,  by  paying  a  license  of  $3  a  year,  and  then  has  the 
right  to  locate  claims  as  in  thU  country.  The  claims  are 
1,500  feet  square,  and  ownership  is  retained  by  doing  $100 
worth  of  work  annually,  or  by  paying  that  amount  to  the 
government.  When  $500  worth  of  work  is  done,  a  crown 
grant  is  given,  which  carries  full  ownership.  No  region 
under  heaven  oflfers  more  inducements  today  to  practical 
miners  and  prospectors. 


SI 


sa 


2 

o 
o 
w 

oi 
o 

H 

M 

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n 


I 


•^mm 


DC 
EASTERN  OREGON  GOLD  FIELDS. 


Nearly  15,000  Square  Miles  of  Rich  Placers  and  Ore-Beds, 

with  Baker  City  as  the  Center  — Great  Chances 

for  Prospectors. 


BUT   great  as  the  Kootenai  is,  and  infinite  as  its  riches  and 
possibiHties  are,  it  is  not  "alone  in  its  glory."  It  will  have 
no  monopoly  of  the  coming  boom.   At  least  two  other  regions, 
nearer,  more  accessible,  and  both  on  the  Yankeedoodle  side 
of  the  international  boundary  line,  are  destined  to  share  to 
some  extent  in  its  grand  rush  of  development  and  prosperity. 
Chief  of  these  is  the  already  fanous  Eastern  Oregon  Gold- 
Field,   of  which   Baker  City   is   the   center  and   metropolis. 
Stretching  from  the  northeastern  part  of   Wallowa  county 
down  into  the  northern  end  of  Malheur  and  Harney  counties, 
and  from  the  Snake  river  far  over  on  the  tributaries  of  the 
John  Day,  and  including  all  of  Baker  and  a  large  part  of 
Grant  and  Union  counties,   this  vast  mineral  belt  extends 
through  two  degrees  of  latitude  and  longitude.     That  is,  it 
is  about  120  miles  square,  and  has  an  area  of  14,400  square 
miles — or  within  a  trifle  of  as  much  as  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island   and   Connecticut,   all    combined.     It   is   travt  rsed   in 
every  direction  by  spurs  of  the  picturesque  Blue  mountains 
from  6,000  to  9,600  feet  high,  and  is  watered  by  innumerable 
bold  streams  like  the  Wallowa,  Imnaha,  Grand  Ronde,  Pow 
der  and  Burnt  rivers,  and  the  tributaries  of  the  John  Day  and 
Malheur.     There  are  immense  forests  of  valuable  timber,  the 
valleys  are  exhaustless  in  fertility,  and  the  climate  is  mild 
and  healthful.     But  the  one  all-overshadowing  fact,  to  which 

68 


I  * 

\\ 


the  region  owes  its  first  settlement  and  growth,  and  will  owe 
its  future  progress  and  celebrity,  is  that  investigation  so  far 
indicates  that  there  is  virtually  no  limit  to  its  rich  and  varied 
mineral  resources.  Its  every  peak  and  foothill  seem  ribbed 
with  royal  ore,  and  its  every  valley  a  mighty  deposit  of  golden 
sands;  while  silver,  copper,  lead  and  iron  abound,  and  pre- 
cious stones  are  found  in  some  localities.  It  has  produced 
untold  millions  of  dollars  in  gold,  that  in  earlier  days  went  to 
San  Francisco  to  swell  the  reports  of  California's  yield. 
Grant  county  has  turned  out  over  $5,000,000  of  placer  gold 
alone,  and  Baker,  county's  aggregate  production  of  quartz 
and  placer  gold  has  certainly  not  been  less  than  $12,000,000; 
and  both  are  in  the  infancy  of  their  mining  greatness. 
According  to  the  report  of  the  United  States  mint  director, 
Oregon  produced  $1,690,950  of  gold  in  1893,  of  which  $1,377,- 
479  came  from  Baker,  Grant,  Union  and  Malheur  counties; 
Baker  county  alone  furnishing  $728,496.  The  output  of  these 
four  counties  in  1896  was  at  least  $1,500,000;  and  this  year, 
with  enlarged  plants  and  improved  methods  of  treatment,  it 
will  reach  close  to  $2,500,000.  The  whole  region  is  rich  in 
resources  and  products  now,  and  assured  of  being  incalcula- 
bly richer  as  its  mighty  stores  of  hidden  wealth  are  opened 
up,  and  the  boundless  opportunities  it  offers  for  speedy  for- 
tune become  known. 

Almost  exactly  in  the  geographical  center  of  this  grand 
empire  of  present  and  prospective  mines,  has  arisen,  as  its 
natural  capital  and  emporium,  the  handsome  and  flourishing 
little  city,  that  bears  the  name  of  Oregon's  soldier-statesman, 
General  E.  D.  Baker,  the  hero  and  victim  of  Ball's  Bluff. 
It  is  the  county-seat  of  Baker  county,  which,  with  an  area 
of  3.500  square  miles,  is  larger  than  Rhode  Island  and  Dela- 
ware put  together.  It  is  422  miles,  a  little  south  of  east  from 
Portland,  on  the  line  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation 
Company,  which  runs  69  miles  diagonally  through  the 
county,  from  northwest  to  southeast.    The  altitude  of  the 

64 


msaum 


city  is  3,440  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  The  climate  is 
unsurpassable  in  all  the  qualities  that  are  conducive  to  health 
and  vigor.  Though  there  is  considerable  snowfall,  the  win- 
ters are  comparatively  mild,  and  cattle  run  on  the  ranges  all 
the  year  without  feeding  or  care.  The  summer  heat  is  never 
oppressive,  and  the  nights  are  always  delightfully  cool.  The 
valleys,  for  from  50  to  75  miles  on  every  side  of  Baker  City, 
are  fertile  in  soil,  yielding  abundant  crops  of  all  the  leading 
grains,  grasses  and  vegetables,  and  fine  fruit  is  grown  in 
the  lower  altitudes.  All  kinds  of  livestock  do  well,  with  no 
care  or  attention,  and  thousands  of  cattle,  horses,  hogs  and 
sheep  are  raised.  Everywhere,  north,  west  and  northwest 
of  the  city,  are  forests  of  magnificent  timber  for  all  mining 
and  building  purposes,  consisting  generally  of  giant  pine,  fir, 
spruce  and  tamarack.  To  the  east  and  southeast,  the  timber 
is  less  abundant.  The  whole  region  is  watered  by  mountain 
streams,  Powder  river  running  through  the  very  heart  of 
Baker  City.  The  Sumpter  Valley  railroad,  30  miles  long, 
connects  the  place  with  all  the  agricultural,  pastoral  and  min- 
eral regions  lying  west  and  southwest  of  it,  for  fully  100 
miles;  and  well-constructed  wagon  roads,  recently  finished, 
bring  it  the  trade  of  a  large  part  of  Baker,  Union  and  Grant 
counties,  and  the  northern  end  of  Malheur  and  Harney  coun- 
ties. It  is  the  depot  and  supply-point  for  all  the  mines  and 
mining  camps  of  the  entire  region,  including  something  like 
a  half-hundred  districts. 

With  such  a  position  and  such  surroundings.  Baker  City 
could  not  have  failed  to  thrive,  as  few  western  towns  have 
done  in  recent  years.  In  spite  of  the  general  dullness  and 
depression,  it  has  steadily  grown  and  prospered.  It  has  nearly 
trebled  its  population  since  the  census  of  1890.  rising  from 
2,600  then  to  something  like  7,000  now.  The  gold  yield  of 
its  immediately  tributary  territory  has  increased,  within  the 
last  four  years,  from  $600,000,  to  fully  $1,500,000,  a  year.  Its 
farming  and  stock-growing  interests  have  great' y  advanced, 

55 


and  its  business  in  every  line  has  kept  step  to  the  music  of  a 
double-quick  forward  march.  Its  streets  are  broad  and  well- 
kept,  and  many  of  its  public  and  private  buildings  would  be 
creditable  to  a  city  of  25,000  people.  Several  of  its  busi- 
ness blocks  have  cost  from  $15,000  to  $40,000  each.  Its 
churches  and  public  schools  are  handsome  and  tasteful.  It 
has  a  number  of  flourishing  manufacturing  establishments, 
including  a  mill  that  turns  out  80,000  feet  of  lumber  a  day, 
waterworks,  gas  and  electric  light  plants,  a  street  railway, 
and  two  live  daily  newspapers  and  three  weeklies.  The  Ore- 
gon Railway  and  Navigation  Company  has  a  large  and  con- 
veniently arranged  depot,  a  fine  stone-and-iron  warehouse 
and  extensive  stockyards.  There  is  no  busier  or  more  pros- 
perous little  city  in  the  west,  and  its  future  is  radiant  with 
promise,  for  every  day  is  adding  to  the  number  and  pro- 
ductiveness of  the  great  mines  on  which,  at  last,  all  its  prog- 
ress and  prosperity  depend. 

Eight  miles  east  of  Baker  City  is  the  famous  Virtue  mine, 
which  has  shown  that  "Virtue  is  its  own  reward"  by  produc- 
ing over  $3,000,000.  Its  ore  is  so  absolutely  free-milling  that 
95  per  cent,  of  its  value  is  saved  by  the  simplest  amalgama- 
tion process,  and  the  remainder  by  concentration.  The  ore 
mills  from  $15  to  $25  to  the  ton;  but,  as  depth  is  attained,  it 
grows  richer.  In  the  mineral  show-window  of  the  Oregon 
Railway  and  Navigation  Company's  Portland  ticket-oflfice 
there  are  now  on  exhibition  some  samples  of  ore 
from  a  recent  strike  in  the  Virtue  mine  that  have 
attracted  no  end  of  attention.  They  are  not  mere  chips 
or  specks,  but  are  what  an  old  miner  would  style 
"big  chunks,"  of  ore  that  runs  from  $100,000  to 
$200,000  to  the  ton!  From  a  five-pound  lump  of  it,  $500  could 
be  pounded  in  a  few  minutes  with  a  mortar  and  pestle!  The 
specimens  are  locked  up  in  the  big  ofifice-safe  at  night,  like 
money  or  jewelry.  The  ore-body  is  opened  up  on  the  300- 
foot,  470-foot  and  600-foot  levels,  and  a  shaft  has  just  been 
driven  down  to  a  depth  of  700  feet.    The  main  pay-chute,  so 

96 


far  as  explored,  is  800  feet  long,  and  averages  3  feet  in  width. 
The  mine  is  equipped  in  the  best  modern  style,  with  a  20- 
stamp  mill,  hoisting-works,  pumps  and  concentrating-plant. 
The  capacity  of  the  mill  is  to  be  doubled  this  season,  giving  it 
40  stamps,  and  there  is  ore  enough  in  sight  to  run  it  for  years. 
The  output  now  is  from  $20,000  to  $30,000  a  month,  and  it  is 
only  limited  by  the  capacity  of  the  machinery. 

Adjoining  the  Virtue  on  the  south   is  the   Consolidated 


Virtue  Mine,  Baker  County,  Oregon,  on  Line  of  O.  R.  &  N.  Co. 

Virginia,  on  which  work  is  being  pushed  as  rapidly  as  men  and 
money  and  the  most  improved  machinery  can  do  it,  to  reach 
the  Virtue  vein.  The  Mogul,  Gold  Dollar  and  Texas  groups 
lie  north  and  northeast  of  the  Virtue.  The  Emma-Monte, 
just  north  of  the  Texas,  has  struck  ore  that  mills  over  $25  to 
the  ton.  North  of  the  Emma-Monte  is  the  Perry,  at  a  depth 
of  200  feet,  producing  ore  that  mills  from  $5  to  $20  to  the  ton. 
The  Rachel  joins  the  Perry  on  the  north,  and  has  thousands 

57 


of  tons  of  ore  opened  up  that  will  mill  from  $5  to  $30.  The 
Alturas  and  Del  Norte,  north  of  the  Rachel,  have  struck 
good  ore  that  differs  in  character  from  that  of  the  district 
generally  in  not  being  free-milling.  The  Flagstaff,  in  the 
northwest  part  of  the  Virtue  belt,  is  owned  by  a  French 
company,  that  has  a  splendid  equipment  of  steam  hoist,  eight 
compressed-air  drills  and  a  lo-stamp  mill.  Its  shaft  is  down 
nearly  600  feet,  and  drifts  have  been  run  at  the  100,  200  and 
300-foot  levels,  opening  up  an  ore-body  from  200  to  400  feet 
long,  and  running  from  $3  to  $50  to  the  ton.  Good  prospects 
have  been  found  on  the  Cyclone,  Red  Jacket,  Gordon,  Lady, 
Adams,  Phillips,  Bradbury,  Butler,  McCord  and  many  other 
claims  in  the  same  neighborhood. 

The  White  Swan,  three  miles  east  of  the  Virtue,  has  pro- 
duced over  $300,000,  and  paid  for  all  development  and  im- 
provements, and  $40,000  in  dividends,  without  the  investment 
of  a  dollar.  The  ore  is  all  free-milling,  and  runs  from  $6  to 
$25  to  the  ton,  averaging  $14.  A  few  tons  of  surface  ore  from 
the  Mabel,  two  miles  southwest  of  the  White  Swan,  yielded 
$24,000  in  gold,  and  development  work  is  being  pushed. 
The  Brazos,  a  half-mile  south  of  the  Mabel,  has  2,500  tons 
of  $8  ore  stoped  out.  The  Columbian,  two  miles  northeast 
of  the  Virtue,  has  enough  of  rich  ore  blocked  out  to  run  a 
mill  two  years,  and  is  preparing  to  put  in  a  lo-stamper.  The 
Friday  recently  milled  a  lot  of  ore  that  yielded  $27  to  the 
ton.  In  Quartz  Gulch,  between  the  Virtue  and  White  Swan, 
several  promising  discoveries  have  lately  been  made;  and 
clear  on  for  45  miles  east  and  southeast  to  Snake  river,  every 
indication  seems  to  show  that  the  whole  country  is  seamed 
with  free-gold  ledges.  At  Gold  Hill,  near  Durkee  Station, 
which  is  27  miles  southeast  of  Baker  City,  on  the  Oregon 
Railway  and  Navigation  Company's  line,  the  Burnt  River 
Mining  Company  has  opened  up  eight  parallel  veins  in  a  dis- 
tance of  2,000  feet.  The  ore  runs  $14  to  the  ton,  partly  free- 
milling,  and  the  company  is  just  finishing  up  a  lo-stamp  mill 
and  concentrating-works. 

58 


Within  the  last  few  weeks,  there  has  been  a  tremendous 
rush  to  the  newly  discovered  placer-field  on  the  south  side 
of  Lookout  Mountain.  The  whole  region  is  being  dotted 
with  shacks  and  tents,  and  many  claims  have  been  located. 
Working  with  old-fashioned  rockers,  quantities  of  nuggets 
running  from  $5  to  $15  apiece  have  been  washed  out.  There 
is  an  immense  territory  full  of  promise  for  quartz  prospectors, 
and  some  rich  discoveries  have  already  been  made. 

About  35  miles  southeast  of  Baker  City  is  the  great  Con- 
nor Creek  mine,  which  has  produced  $1,300,000.  High  up  on 
the  mountain,  so  that  it  can  be  worked  wholly  by  tunnels  to 
a  depth  of  1,600  feet,  with  abundance  of  timber  all  around 
it,  and  with  a  3S-stamp  mill  run  by  waterpower,  it  can 
profitably  handle  ore  that  yields  $2  a  ton,  and  has  paid  hand- 
some dividends  on  $3  ore.  Some  of  its  ore  runs  as  high  as 
any  in  the  world,  and  thousands  of  dollars  have  been  taken 
from  a  few  hundred  pounds  of  quartz. 

After  all  its  vast  production,  this  whole  free-gold  belt, 
lying  east  of  Baker  City,  45  miles  long  by  20  wide,  is  com- 
paratively unprospected.  It  offers  ten  thousand  opportuni- 
ties to  both  placer  and  quartz  prospectors,  as  is  shown  by  the 
number  of  new  and  valuable  finds  that  are  being  almost  daily 
made.  It  is  easily  accessible,  and  the  climate  admits  of  pros- 
pecting all  the  year  round.  Outside  of  this  free-milling  tract, 
the  ores  generally  require  treatment  by  smelter  or  concen- 
trator, though  often  interspersed  with  ledges  of  free  gold. 

Up  in  the  northeastern  corner  of  Union  county,  at  an 
altitude  of  from  4,600  to  9,000  feet,  among  the  Powder  River 
mountains,  is  the  Cornucopia  district,  with  a  mineral  belt  6 
miles  long,  by  from  2  to  3  miles  wide,  on  which  ledges  of  ore 
running  from  $5  to  $50  to  the  ton  are  exposed  in  more  than 
30  mines  and  prospects.  The  Union  Companion  has  opened 
up  20  fissure  veins  by  a  1,200- foot  tunnel,  has  a  stamp-mill 
and  concentrator  run  by  electricity  generated  by  waterpower, 
and  a  6-ton  chlorination  plant.    Its  ore  goes  from  $6  to  $25 

59 


I 


to  the  ton,  of  which  about  80  per  cent,  is  saved,  part  by  bat- 
tery and  plate  amalgamation,  and  the  rest  by  concentration. 
The  mine  produces,  with  its  present  equipment,  from  $15,000 
to  $20,000  a  month.  The  Red  Jacket  has  milled  several  thou- 
sand tons  of  ore.  A  number  of  adjacent  claims  have  shipped 
ore,  running  from  $60  to  $300  to  the  ton,  to  Puget  Sound 
smelters,  and  the  two  small  custom-mills  of  the  camp  are 
kept  busy.  The  Simmons  group  shows  several  ledges  of  $15 
ore.  In  Eagle  Crerk  district,  southwest  of  Cornucopia,  the 
Cady  mines  are  profitably  running  a  lo-stamp  mill,  and  have 
thousands  of  tons  of  ore  in  sight. 

In  the  Sanger  district,  southwest  of  Eagle,  the  Bradley 
mine,  formerly  known,  as  the  Sanger,  has  produced  between 
$500,000  and  $1,000,000,  all  above  the  280-foot  level.  It  has 
a  lo-stamp  mill,  and  has  just  added  concentrating-works. 
The  Basin,  a  new  discovery,  is  working  ore  that  goes  from 
$10  to  $60  to  the  ton,  with  a  5-stamp  mill.  The  placer  dig- 
gings around  Sparta  have  yielded  many  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  dollars — some  authorities  say  millions — but  there 
are  immense  placer-beds  yet  unworked,  and  prospecting  for 
quartz  has  just  begun.  Some  rich  finds  have  been  made 
within  the  last  month. 

Starting  westward  from  Baker  City,  the  mineral  beds 
begin  almost  in  the  municipal  limits.  Splendid  quartz  pros- 
pects have  been  recently  found  within  two  or  three  miles  of 
the  courthouse.  A  short  distance  southwest  is  Auburn 
Gulch,  that  has  yielded  millions  of  placer  gold,  and  the 
Robinson  and  Carpenter  placers  are  steadily  producing  the 
golden  dust.  The  Elkhorn  mountains,  a  spur  of  the  great 
Blue  range,  are  an  almost  unbroken  series  of  ore-bodies. 
The  Tom  Paine,  near  Pocahontas,  eight  miles  west  of  Baker 
City,  has  turned  out  some  of  the  richest  quartz  ever  found 
in  the  region,  running  into  thousands  of  dollars  to  the  ton. 
Its  ordinary  milling  ore  yields  about  $30  to  the  ton. 

60 


> 


Sixteen  miles  northwest  of  Baker  City  are  the  Baisley- 
Elkhorn  and  Robbins-Elkhorn  mines,  both  with  vast  ledges 
of  ore  opened  up,  running  from  $3  to  $300  to  the  ton.  The 
Maxwell  is  running  a  lo-stamp  mill  on  $15  ore,  of  which  it 
has  an  inexhaustible  mass.     The  Beckwith  has  yielded  thou- 


Baiskky-Ei-khorn  Mine  and  Mill,  Baker  County,  Ore;gon, 
ON  Line  of  O.  R.  &  N.  Co. 

sands  of  dollars;  the  Barnes,  Phillips  and  Irving  are  promis- 
ing prospects;  and  the  Chloride  has  a  ledge  from  30  to  40 
feet  wide,  that  runs  $35  to  the  ton.  It  has  a  large  vein  of 
gold  in  granite,  and  another  of  silver  in  slate. 

About  34  miles   west   of   Baker   City   is    the    renowned 
Cracker  Creek  district,  with  Bourne  as  its  postoflfice  town. 

61 


The  whole  region  is  mineralized,  timber  and  water  are  abun- 
dant, and  every  facility  exists  for  cheap  mining.  The  Eureka 
and  Excelsior,  under  the  management  of  the  Messrs.  Long- 
maid,  as  lessees,  has  become  one  of  the  most  notable  mines 
in  Oregon.  It  has  opened  up,  with  a  1,200-foot  tunnel,  an 
ore-ledge  from  20  to  200  feet  wide.  With  a  20-stamp  mill 
and  concentrators,  70  tons  of  ore  a  day  are  handled  at  a  total 
expense  of  $2.90  a  ton.  The  North  Pole,  adjoining  the  Eu-  . 
rek'i  and  Excelsior  on  the  north,  has  a  lo-stamp  mill,  a  10- 
ton  furnace,  and  a  cyanide  process  plant,  with  a  capacity  of 
25  tons  a  day,  and  is  reducing  its  own  ore.  which  yields  $t6 
to  the  ton,  with  enough  in  sight  to  run  for  years.  Just  south 
of  the  Eureka  and  Excelsior,  the  Columbia  has  a  ledge  from 
30  to  70  feet  wide,  opened  up  for  250  feet.  Part  of  its  ore 
is  rich  in  free  gold,  and  specimens  of  its  telluride  ore  have 
run  from  $100,000  to  $300,000  to  the  ton — or  about  half  pure 
gold.  It  has  its  own  stamp-mill  and  concentrator.  Good 
prospects  have  been  found  in  the  Appomattox,  Golconda, 
Wide  West,  Amazon  and  Bunker  Hill.  Parallel  with*  the 
Columbia  on  the  west  is  the  Ohio,  which  has  just  erected  a 
lo-stamp  mill  on  a  body  of  ore  that  runs  from  $2  to  $200  to 
the  ton.  Five  miles  southwest  of  Cracker  Creek,  the  newly 
discovered  Ibex  has  a  ledge  ranging  from  10  to  40  feet  wide. 
A  carload  of  its  ore  recently  netted  over  $200  to  the  ton.  The 
Ball  Mountain,  north  of  the  Ibex,  has  three  chutes  of  the 
same  ore  as  its  neighbor.  Northeast  of  the  Ibex,  the  Mam- 
moth yielded  thousands  of  dollars  of  free  gold  with  a  5-stamp 
mill;  then  the  sulphurets  were  struck,  and  it  was  prac- 
tically abandoned — which  is.  in  brief,  the  history  of  half  the 
mines  in  Oregon.  Now,  with  the  improved  methods  of 
treatment,  the  Mammoth  will  doubtless  speedily  resume  its 
place  among  the  rich  producers.  There  is  a  wide  territory 
here  almost  wholly  unexplored,  and  prospectors  will  find  it 
one  of  the  most  inviting  fields  in  America. 

98 


Cable  Cove  district,  which  lies  six  miles  west  of  Cracker 
Creek,  or  Bourne,  contains  many  lar^e  bodies  of  rich  sul 
phurets,  that  are  only  waiting  lor  capital  to  put  the  necessary 
reduction-works  on  them,  to  make  them  bonanza  mines. 
Shipments  of  ore  from  the  California  have  yielded  from  $()0 
to  $200  to  the  ton.  The  Imperial.  Ivy  May.  Red  Chief. 
Crown  Point,  Winchester.  Mormon  Hoy  and  Donnelly- 
Thornton  have  all  struck  good  ore.  The  Baker  City  group 
has  a  ledge  of  free-gold  (piartz  that  runs  as  high  as  $200  to 
the  ton,  and  a  claim  recently  discovered  by  luKvard  Ransom 
has  shipped  a  carload  of  ore  that  yielded  $58  to  the  ton  in 
gold  and  silver. 

Over  the  huge  range  of  Blue  mountains  in  Grant  county 
are  4.200  scptare  miles  of  mineral  in  ledge  and  placer— that 
is.  an  area  more  than  half  as  large  as  the  state  of  Massachu- 
setts. The  placer  mines  of  the  county  have  yielded  over 
$5,000,000,  and  there  are  thousands  of  acres  yet  that  have 
never  felt  the  touch  of  pick  or  shovel.  Quartz-mining  is  in 
its  babyhood,  though  great  discoveries  have  been  made  and 
great  mines  opened.  In  the  Granite  district,  about  20  miles 
northwest  of  McEwen.  the  Bellevue  has  exposed,  by  mere 
development  work,  20,000  tons  of  $20  ore.  and  20.000  more 
that  will  mill  $14  to  the  ton.  With  a  io-*on  Crawford  mill, 
the  Red  Boy  has  already  paid  for  itself  and  a  number  of 
adjoining  properties,  built  several  miles  of  canal,  and  erected 
all  its  own  buildings.  Its  ore  runs  from  $14  to  $20  to  the 
ton,  mostly  free  gold.  Three  miles  southwest  of  the  Belle- 
vue. the  Monumental  is  running  a  lo-stamp  mill  on  high- 
grade  silver  ore.  while  its  next  neighl)or.  the  Buffalo,  has 
taken  out  ore  that  yielded  $400  to  the  ton  in  gold. 

In  the  Olive  Creek  or  Robinsonville  district,  the  Bonanza 
mine,  at  a  depth  of  300  feet,  has  300,000  tons  of  ore  in  sight 
that  mills  from  $8  to  $20  to  the  ton— an  aggregate  of  over 
$3,000,000.  It  has  a  20-stamp  mill  and  a  concentrating  plant, 
its  machinery  is  run  by  water  power,  and  the  total  cost  of 

• 

63 


mining  and  milling  its  ore  is  but  $2  a  ton.  Some  of  its 
recent  clean-ups  have  amounted  to  $1,000  a  day.  The  capa- 
city of  its  entire  plant  is  to  be  doubled,  as  soon  as  the  machin- 
ery can  be  brought  in  and  set  up.  The  Phoenix  and  the  Pyx 
have  each  a  5-stamp  mill,  running  on  ore  that  averages  $26 
to  the  ton  in  the  Phoenix,  and  ranges  from  $9  to  $70  to  the 
ton  in  the  Pyx.  The  Worley  and  Virginia  have  good  show- 
ings. The  Don  Juan  is  a  young  wonder.  With  a  little 
3-stamp  prospecting  mill,  it  is  taking  out  big  money,  its  ore 
yielding  $110  to  the  ton.  Some  of  it,  hand-picked,  sacked 
and  shipped  for  more  perfect  treatment,  runs  over  $1,000 
to  the  ton.  The  placers  of  this  district  have  panned  out 
hundreds  of  thouj.ands  in  gold-dust,  and  are  still  steady  pro- 
ducers. 

In  the  Quartzburg  district,  some  astonishingly  rich  finds 
have  been  made.  For  about  100  feet  down  the  ore  is  free- 
milling;  below  that  depth,  solid  sulphurets.  The  Giflford, 
with  an  old-time  waterpower  arastra,  has  produced  gold 
enough  to  pay  for  itself  and  all  development,  and  a  good 
many  thousands  of  profits.  A  recent  run  of  21  tons  through 
the  antique  arastra  cleaned  up  $2,740,  or  a  little  over  $130  to 
the  ton.  The  Keystone,  Colorado,  Little  Denver,  Cougar, 
Alta,  Midnight  and  Jackson-Dunn  all  show  fine  bodies  of 
ore.  Two  small  mills  cannot  begin  to  handle  the  ore  that 
is  offered  for  treatment,  and  the  machinery  for  another  S-ton 
smelter  has  just  been  brought  in.  A  lOO-ton  mill  would 
get  all  it  could  do. 

In  the  Susanville  district,  the  placer  mines,  worked  in 
primitive  fashion,  yield  about  $20,000  a  year,  and  there  is  an 
immense  territory  still  unexplored.  Among  the  compara- 
tively few  quartz  locations  is  the  group  of  the  Elk  Creek 
Mining  Company,  including,  with  a  half-dozen  others,  the 
Cabell,  which  has  yielded  from  one  little  hole  70  feet  deep 
$88,000  in  gold  bullion.     On  the  Princess  group,  owned  by  an 

64 


English  company,  a  strike  of  ore  has  just  been  made,  show- 
ing a  mass  of  free  gold.  The  Gem,  South  Gem  and  Ironsides 
are  all  in  rich  ore. 

More  than  $2,500,000  has  been  washed  out  of  the  placer- 
beds  of  Canyon  Creek  and  vicinity,  all  by  the  crudest,  old- 
timey  processes.  Millions  of  dollars  are  still  lying  in  the  gravel 
waiting  for  modern  methods  and  machinery  to  turn  them 


White  Swan  Mine,  Baker  County,  Oregon,  on  Line  of  O.  R.  &  N.  Co. 

into  the  treasuries  of  the  world.  Canyon  Mountain,  the 
source  of  all  this  pan-and-rocker  wealth,  has  never  been 
prospected  for  the  mighty  lodes  it  undoubtedly  contains.  In 
the  new  Hot  Springs  district  there  are  outcropping  ledges 
of  free-gold  ore  from  30  feet  to  600  feet  wide,  miles  of  which 
have  never  been  located  or  claimed.  In  the  Fox  district,  the 
Butte  mine  has  a  vein  88  feet  wide  of  free-milling  gold  ore 

6fi 


n 


that  runs  from  $2.60  to  $10.50  to  the  ton,  and  its  entire  plant 
is  a  little  5-stanip  mill.  In  the  southern  end  of  Baker  county 
and  the  northern  end  of  Malheur,  and  away  down  on  Trout 
creek  in  Harney,  many  rich  prospects  have  recently  been 
discovered;  a  vast  copper  dike  runs  for  miles  through  the 
Quartzburg  region  of  Grant  county,  and  immense  deposits 
of  coal  crop  out  on  the  headwaters  of  John  Day  river.  Vol- 
umes might  be  filled  with  the  mere  roll-call  of  possibilities 
to  be  met  everywhere  in  this  Oregonian  land  of  gold.  There 
\i  no  need  of  going  out  of  this  country  to  seek  fortune.  It 
is  here  for  every  one  who  comes  with  his  eyes  open,  and 
ready  to  take  it! 


6tt 


THE  COEUR  D^ALENES. 


Mines  that  Have  Produced  Nearly   $25,000,000— Some  Recent 
'Wonderfully  Rich  Discoveries. 


A  PAGE  of  mention  is  enough  for  a  region  that  has,  for 
nearly  fifteen  years,  written  its  name  in  letters  of  gold 
and  silver  on  the  most  brilliant  pages  of  American  mining 
history.     In  the  wild  and  rugged   mountains   of   Northern 
Idaho,  it  has,  since  its  virtu V.  discovery  in  1884,  poured  some- 
thing like  $25,000,000  into  the  treasuries  of  the  nation.  Towns, 
like  Wallace,  Wardner,  Murray,  Mullan,  Osborne,  Burke  and 
Gem,  whose  names  are  known  throughout  the  world,  have 
sprung  up  in  its  abysmal  gulches  and  among  its  savage  crags. 
Its  great  mines  are  famous  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The  Bunker 
Hill  and  Sullivan,  the  Tiger  and  Poorman,  the  Last  Chance, 
Granite,   Gem,   Custer,   Stem  winder,   Black   Bear,   Morning, 
Gold  Hunter,  and  a  host  of  others  scarcely  less  renowned, 
have  pushed  Idaho  far  toward  the  front  of  the  procession  of 
mining  states.     She  produces  about  a  fourth  of  all  the  lead 
in  the  United  States— or  some  70,000,000  pounds  a  year.    The 
gold  placers  of  the  Ccrur  d'Alenes   have  yielded  upwards  of 
$2,500,000,  although  it  is  a  silver-galena  region.    The  shipping 
mines  are  now  employing  about  1,700  men,  and  probably  700 
more  are  engaged  in  placer  and  development  work.    The  pay- 
roll of  these  2,400  men  runs  near  $8,000  a  day,  or  over  $2,500,- 
000  a  year.    Wages  of  other  labor  will  swell  this  to  a  grand 
total  of  more  than  $3,000,000.    The  shipments  of  ore  and  con- 
centrates run  over  6,000  tons,  or  12,000,000  pounds,  a  month. 

•7 


I 


New  and  wonderfully  rich  discoveries  are  almost  daily  re- 
ported, including  two  especially  notable  within  the  past  week. 
A  25-foot  vein  was  struck  in  the  Silver  King,  near  Wallace;  and 
two  prospectors,  Snyder  and  Bell,  while  doing  development 
work  on  the  Eureka,  about  a  mile  from  Murray,  broke  into  a 
mass  of  quartz  that  runs  into  the  hundreds  of  thousands  to 
the  ton.  They  chipped  off  a  piece  with  a  hammer,  and  that 
night  pounded  $50  out  of  it  with  a  mortar  and  pestle.  The 
next  day  they  put  in  a  shot  and  blew  out  rock,  from  which 
they  pounded  $750  that  night!  They  have  since  opened  up  a 
4-inch  streak  of  almost  pure  gold,  and  the  whole  population 
of  the  North  Fork  country  has  gone  wild.  Think  of  gold 
quartz  rich  enough  to  work  by  hand,  with  a  mortar  and  a 
pan!  There  is  a  wide  territory  yet  unexplored,  and  mines 
just  as  rich  yet  to  be  found,  as  any  of  those  that  have  already 
transformed  poor  prospectors  into  bonanza-kings,  and  made 
the  Coeur  d'Alenes  famous  among  the  great  mining  regions 
of  the  globe. 

THE  BIG  BCX)MS  ARE  YET  TO  COMEI 


Additional  copies  of  this  book  may  be  had  by  addressing 

W.  R  HURLBURT, 

General  Passenger  Agent,  O*  R*  &  N.  CO*, 

PORTLAND,  OREGON. 


68 


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THE  MINES  OF  NEW  BONANZALAND 


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THE  KOOTENAY  REGION. 


I     TRAIL  ORBBK 

Idaho 

Contact 

Iron  HoFM 

Virginia 

Iron  Colt 

Columbus 

St.  Elmo 

Leral  Tend«r 

Northern  Bella 

Defender 

Deer  Park 

Superior 

Vulcan 

Golden  Dawn 

Black  Bear 

California 

CkKMl  Frldajr 

Southern  Belle 

Caledonia 

Buckeye 

Golden  Queen 

LeRol 


DISTBIOT,  B.  O. 

War  Basle 

Center  Star 

Joale 

Jumbo 

Red  Mountain 

Bvenlns  Star 

Iron  Mask 

llajrflower 

Kootenay 

ClUt 

llonte  Chrlato 

Monte  Crlito 

City  of  Spokane 

Homestake 

Commander 

White  Bear 

Crown  Point 

Nickel  Plate 

Neat  EEC 

I.  X.  U 

R.  B.  Lee 


a  SLOGAN 

Slocan  Star 

Noble  Five 

Washlnaton 

Slocan  Soy 

Monitor 

Ruth 

Wonderful 

Reco 

Last  Chance 

Enterprise 

Payne 

Northern  Belle 

Whitewater 

Antonle 

Surprise 

Rambler 

Wellington 

London 


DISTRICT,  B.  O. 

Mountain  Chief 

Ivanhoe 

Fisher  Maiden 

Blue  Bird 

Ooodenough 

Best 

Idaho 

Rambler 

Alamo 

Cumberland 

R.  B.  Lee 

Queen  Bess 

Galena  Farm 

Mountain  Chief 

Silver  Bell 

Best 

Surprise 


3      FT.  8TBBLE 

Minnie  Wells 

North  Star 

Sullivan  Oroup 

Midnight 

Deane 

All-over 

Quantrell 

Utopia 

Stemwlnder 

Bis  Chief 


DISTRICT,  B.  C. 

Eureka 

Queen  Ann  Group 

Jennings 

Walsh 

Toung 

Waters 

Lamont 

Scott 

ThMnpson 


4  AIN8WORTH  DISTRICT,  B.  C. 
Number  One  Sunlight 

Sky  Line  Gallagher 

Black  Diamond  Rand 

Little  Phil  King  Solomon 

Mile  Point  Tarltt 

Nupsho  Blue  Bell 

5  KEnTLB  RIVBR  DISTRICT,  B.  O. 
Comatock  Minnie 

Volcanic  Bmplr* 

Pathnnder  Bonlta 

Bonaparte  Ponanta 

Columbia  R.  Bell 
Elsie  May 

«  NELSON  DISTRICT.  B.  C. 

Silver  King  Union  Jack 

Ben  Hassan  Iroquois 

Maud  S.  Bagle 

Canadian  Bella  Forty-nine 

Fern  Poorman 

Golden  King  Royal  Canadian 

I^andv  Majestic 

Grizzly  Muldoon 

Koh-inoor  Whitewater 
American  Flag 


7 

Vernon,  B.  O. 

8 

Lardeau,  B.  C. 

f» 

Trout  Lake,  B.  C. 

10 

Golden,  B.  C. 

M 

Windemere,  B.  O. 

12 

Ooat  River,  B.  C. 

13 

Kamloopa,  B.  C. 

BAKER   OITY   REGION. 

OREQON. 


I  a       CABLE  COVE  DISTRICT. 

Last  Chance  Little  Maud 

Eureka  Crown  Point 

Herculean  Oregon  Chief 

Fraction  Ivy  May 

Ontario  Red  Chief 

Top  Hand  Golden  Rule 
Imperial 

1 3  GRANITE  DISTRICT. 
Oro  Fino  Ben  Harrison 
Monumental  Quebeo 
Buffalo  Red  Chief 
Sheridan  Uncle  Sam 
Worcester  Jennie  Reid 
Bull  Run  Fourth  of  July 
Milwaukee  King  Solomon 
Humpback 

14  GREEN  HORN  DISTRICT. 

Montana  Portl.  Conal. 

Bally  Ann  Pride  of  Pendleton 

Ornament  Myrtle 

Surprise  Phoenix 

Intrinsic  Tempest 

Bagle  I.  X.  L. 

Anaconda  Legal  Tender 

Mammoth  Treasure 

1 6  ROBINSONVILLB  DISTRICT. 

Don  Juan  Virginia 

Phoenix  Strasburg 

Pyx  Comet 

New  Vtad  Martin 

16  BONANZA  DISTRICT. 

Bonanaa  Jay  Gould 

Evening  Star  Protection 

Lucl^  Boy  Paciflo 

Red  Bird  King  Solomon 

MoGlnty  Hope  Flat 

1 7  HANOVER  DISTRICT. 

Mammoth  Morning  Star 

Ibei  Amaaon 

BeUe  Baker  Kiillan 

1 8  IDOL  OITY  DISTRICT. 
Monarch  Cleveland 

I O      RYE  VALLEY  DISTRICT. 
Odd  Rldgs  Uppermost 

Huffman  Green's  Discovery 

Romeo  Herculean 

JuUatte  Odell 


20  COW  CREEK  DISTRICT. 
Brannln  Claims  Webfoot  Basin 
Whipple  Gulch  Pine  Creek  P.  L.  Co. 
Cow  Creek 

2 1  CAMP  CARSON  DISTRICT. 
Hunters  Camp  Carson 
Limber  Jim 

22  BAY  HORSE  DISTRICT. 
Blue  Dick  Gypsum  Mine 
Bay  Horss  KaoUn  Mine 
Rapid                            O.  K.  Mine 
Coal  Field*                    Lurid  Storm 

23  BIG  CREEK  DISTRICT. 
Shriver  Mine  Crane  Claim 

24  AUBURN  DISTRICT. 
Blue  Canyon  French  Gulch 
Elk  Creek 
Black  Hawk  Group 
Deep  Gravel 
Uren 


Alexander 
Griffin  Gulch 
Filoon  Pacers 
Lincoln 


25  MALHEUR  DISTRICT. 
Bruner's  Ledge  France 
Osar                              Long  Way 
MoClellan  Mitchell 
Linn                             Smith 
BoswsU 

26  MINERVILLE  DISTRICT. 
MlnervUla  Tibbs 
Carnsa 

27  MORMON  DISTRICT. 
Fourth  of  July  Colt  Bros. 
Llttlg  Rainy 
Rogers  Basin               Deera 
Humboldt                      Harrison  Ledge 
Sunday  Hill                  Taylor 

Anex  Uo,  1  Fisher 

Anex  No.  8  Wahkea 

Amelia 

28  NORTH  FORK  DISTRICT. 
AJax  Woods 
.Marrotta     ^  ^  GaMsgher 


OorvnlllH  (    imi 

IS  bBrowni 

JnnotlonlS/ 
City    «J 


rOottase 
Grove 
Diamond  Pi 


Burnt  Hanch 


>iSl 


Waterman^  , 


Daivllleo 


PrlnevUle 


Price  o 


'  Silver  Lake7Ww«*rXrtt 


JfiirfMy 


^  MMtrt 


Xatm 


PMBXLAMM 
3UtUl 


Tjftke^'Vie'W 


"Willc 


cOhlco 
r     l^^S^fi    True 


LWIN   Pt. 


fMarj-a- 
,  vine 


/^       MJIlf  CARSON* 


I*-     ^pR^VlUfi       ,, 
^ICSACRAMENX 

»-      '^•lii         ,  V*II«J  8| 


larai>i.Sftn  Joee        ^^\A/ 


P»fS;^ 


I  Watermai 
'  Lon«\preek  o        "i^ 


\B{g  Pat'ft*  £aJM 


Canyonmy        jB  P>^      ^<^    ^    A-^    o  / 


bonanza 


Jd(Cbq/Oity        -r^   /  , 

o  -/  3s.etchui 


alUs 


Pleasant 


pamey^  o 

"Oatfley 

Jordan^Valleyo! 


B0181 


^ 


ICaAel 


Corral  o 


Halley 
.Tlcura 


Blc 


SHORT 


LINE 


Tiuby  HlUc 

E     V>-^-A      D     A 


REGON  RAILROAD 

AND 

NAVIGATION  CO. 

Map  OF 

PRINCIPAL  MINING  DISTRICTS 

OF  THE 


Oarflelc 
Qrantsvlllj 
"Terml 

ME 


II 

1 


Snltr  Lakt 


Frisco 


1 


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iJiA 


Oasper 


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IHEYENNI 


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ITLCAI 
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Jonio 
jj[rj^  AIM 


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[LakeOitjr 


ORBQON. 

1  ^           VIBTUa 

DISTRICT. 

Vlrtuo 

Kcyatom 

Kmma 
White  Hwan 

Bobrpion 
RatUtr 

ilorilon 

JcrMjr 

(^iilumblui 

Dttrtuun 

PVI<l«y 

■uMka 

Racbcl 

MalMl 

Laura 

Buolwjr* 

Ole  Oleon 

Myrtl* 

Uncle  UttO 

Barber 

AllMtroM 

Flacataff 

Qrey  UooM 

Danvar 

Queen  Dm 

a     TIMBBB  CANTON  DISTRICT. 

Ctxinah  Bthal 

Bxcelaior  Cap  Cod 

May  Quaan  Cryatal 

Big  Indian  Danvar 

White  Badsar  Bis  BouMar 
Hiiy  DIctur 

3        CORNUCOPIA  DISTRICT. 


i^uBt  Chanea 
Ui'ci  Jaokat 
Union 
Ccitiipanlon 
Queen  of  tha  Waat 
l'<K)r  Man 
Slniniona  Oroup 


Norway 
Foraat  Quaan 
Comat 
May  Flowar 
Mavarlok 
Combination 
Van  Winkla 


SPARTA  DISTRICT. 


Aioina 
l«l  Monta 
L^sal  Tandar 
Hidden  Treaaura 
I'ittaburs 
Hllvar  Quaan 
Bweel  Batay 


CryaUl  Palaca 
Shanghai 
OolUa  Vardan 
Good  Thought 
Ora  Dall 
Datroit 


6      CONNOR  CRBBK  DISTRICT. 


I'onner  Craali 
Slalay 


Huntlnston  M.  Co. 
Flloli 


6  SANOBB  DISTRICT. 
blllla  Whlta  St.  Albuna 
Snow  Storm  Roaa 
Hxcelaior  Maaaanser 
Faithful  Boy  LSalT 
Sanirer  Park 
KaKla  Bradlay 
Crown  Point  Chaap  Rook 
Wlndaor 

7  POCAHONTAS  DISTRICT. 
Never  Sweat  BIdorado 
tlarpentar                      Kinc 

Nelaon  Boomarans 

Cracked  Pan  Quean 

Tom  Palna  Uma  Kiln 

Terrible  Toung  America 
Ohio 

8  WBATHBRBT  DISTRICT. 
Gold  HUl  Copper 

Sialey 


Bohna 
(Meveland 
(Hi  Time 
tlambler 
Gold  Cup 


Bonanaa 
Hof  Back 
Bhelton 


BLKHORN  DISTRIOr. 


Uolden  Basle 
MUslonary 
Mlner'a  Hope 
Captain  Jack 
Uonania  Queen 
iJlue  Liedge 
Stella 
Accident 


Gladatoni) 
North  Star 
Ballevue 
Hurdy  Qurdy 
Klia  Gray  No.  1 
BlllaOray  No.  3 
Blkhom  Bonanaa 


I O      ROCK  CRBBK  DISTRICT. 
Chloride  Baater  RIdse 

Sliver  Crown 


Maxwell 
Foreat  City 
Silver  Star 
Montana 

I  I  JRACKAR 

Bureka 

Bxoelalor 

WuHhlngton 

C^ulifornla 

Culumbia 

Amaxon 

Mountain  Belle 

Appnmnttox 

Fractional 

Oregon 


Waahlnston 
Jtue  Bus 
Bis  Bella 

CRBBK  DISTRICT. 
Cracker 
North  Pole 
Ten  Strike 
Ten  Strlkea 
VllUrd 

Blue  Mountain 
Yankee  Jim 
Orearon  Clipper 
Wide  Weat 


AJax 
MiuTott* 
North  Fork 


WuuOa 
Oal  lasher 
Grant 


29   NORTH  POWDBR  DISTRICT, 
■potted  Boraa  Treadwall  Group 

Ottthrta  Mine  Jenktna  Group 

ChipmoBk  Maid  of  Brin 

SO     SUTTON  CRBBK  DISTRICT. 
Alder  New  York 

31  PBDRO  MOUNTAIN  DISTRICT. 
Uttle  Bmma  BuU  Dos 
JuUetU                        Valley 

Cyoloaa  Minnie 

Romeo  Tip  Top 

32  STICBS  OULCH  DISTRICT. 
Btioea  Soott 

Danny  Creak  Colorado  PL  Mf  s.  Co. 

Sprtnser  Harold 

33  SUMPTBR  DISTRICT. 
Daop  Gravel  PI.  Co.      Buok  Guleb 
Archie  Downey  Momins  Star 
MoCuUiaFork 

34  SUSANVILLB  DISTRICT. 
Blue  Jay  Prlnoeaa 
MonumenUl  Blk  Creek  M's.  Co. 
Alte                             Glen  of  the  Mountain 
Poor  Man                     Oresoa 

Bis  BeUo  Bis  Creek 


16 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 


MI80ELLANE0U8. 

Sevsn  D«vUa',  Copper,  Ida. 

Burnt  River,  Placer,  Ore. 

John  Day,  Plaoer,  Ore. 

Snake  River,  Plaoer,  Ida. 

Gold  Hill,  Plaoer,  Ore. 

Nickel  District,  Ore. 

Detroit  Dlstrlot,  Ore. 

Santlam,  Ore. 


23  CCBUR  D'AIiBNB  DISTRICT,  IDA. 
Bunker  Hill  *  Vut  Chance 

Sullivan  Lilttle  Chief 

Badser  Momins 

Black  Bear  MiaaouU 

Black  Diamond  Nellie 

Cuater  Occident 

Dalay  Paymaater 

Gam  Sierra  Nevada 

Uolden  Cheat  Stemwinder 

Golden  Kins  Tisar 

Granite  Poorman 

Helena  Treaaura  Box 

Friaoo  Tin  Cup 

Gold  Hunter  You  Uka 

Idaho  

24  Murray,  Ida. 
26                 Blk  City.  Ida. 

26  Florence,  Ida. 

27  SUver  City,  Ida. 

28  Yakt  Dlatriot,  Mont 

29  KBTTIjB  falls  DISTRICT, WASH 
Silver  Queen  Combination 

Aoma 

30  Metallne,  Mont 

3 1  ColvlUe  Reservation,  Wash. 

32  CBDAR  CANTON  DISTRICT, 

WASH. 
Deer  Trail  Na  3  Cleveland 

33  OKANAOAN  DISTRICT,  WASH. 


Herculea  Group 
Detrolt-Wlndaor 

Group 
Wyandotte  Group 
Chappeoa  Group 
Bmpfre  Group 
Copper  World  Group 
I^eadvllle  Group 
Treaaurer  Group 


Ben  Butler 
Triune 
Sailor  Boy 
Jeaaie 
Black  Bear 
War  Basle 
Ivanhoe 
Rainbow  Oroup 
b|nikHne  Group 
Alllaon  Group 

34  Cascade,  Wasb. 

36  Monte  Crista  Wasb. 

36  St.  Helens  District,  Wasb. 

37  Lewis  River  District,  WHsb. 

38  Skamania  County  District,  Wasb 

39  Klamatb  Flume  St  Placer  Co.  Cal 

40  Sterling,  Ore. 

4 1  Jobn  Lewis,  Placer,  Ore. 

42  OUalla,  Ore. 


